The Triforce Seal
by Mewtata
Summary: After Link, Midna, and Zelda defeated Ganondorf and Zant, they went their seperate ways. But Ganondorf is alive, and a new evil arises. The only way to defeat it is to use all three triforce.
1. Chapter 1

All characters belong to the creators of legend of zelda. This takes place after Twilight princess.

_It was his third birthday: the start of his training. His first test was battling a single leever that had been imprisoned in the training arena. The arena was a stone hexagon with a bowl filled with sand at the center. The leever couldn't escape and without a pack it wasn't much of a threat. The hard part was that he had to kill it with his bare hands. He was standing on the stone edge of the arena. Cuts decorated his skin like bloody tattoos, it wasn't life threatening but by Din it hurt. He lunged onto the sand, baiting the leever to come get him. The creature burst from the sand, spinning like a top. It shot at him and he tried to grab it by its spines. He actually held it for a second before it broke free and plunged back into the sand, leaving him with nothing but a new set of cuts. He tumbled to the ground and rolled away from the spot, trying to retreat to the stone. He could feel the sand tremble beneath him, in front of him. The leever prepared to emerge between him and the stone, not giving him time to escape. _

_It burst from the sand and knocked him back, its spikes slicing him. He stumbled back and tried to retreat but it intercepted him again, and again, and again._

"_I'm going to bleed to death at this point! What an end for the Gerudo prince, killed by a leever. I'm a weakling, a shame to the Gerudo." He stopped "No. I will not bring shame to my family's name."_

_He plunged his fist into the sand, grabbing the offensive creature and pulling it out of its hideaway. He hurled it onto the arena's stone edge. He ran toward it before it could reach the sand and pounded his fists into its center. He pounded it over and over, again and again. He didn't notice the blood starting to drip from his knuckles, his blood and the leever's. He didn't notice the leever's spines cutting across his chest._

But the pain he felt wasn't from wounds inflicted by a leever's spines. Where had he received these wounds?

_If I can feel pain then I'm not dead. _

Sword wounds. They were sword wounds. He remembered now. He had fought Zelda and Link.

Ganondorf opened his eyes and sat up slowly. He was lying in the grass… but it wasn't the field where he had battled Zelda and Link. It was some sort of ruins. He looked at his left hand. The triforce was gone? No it was there, he could feel it, but its light was too weak to show through his glove. The wound from his attempted execution no longer shone with the sage's power, which made sense seeing as the sword that inflicted it was broken in the battle with Link, but it was open and bloody. The triforce was using all its power to keep him alive.

"The big man is awake!

A child-sized figure appeared in from of him. It looked a little bit like a scarecrow, and it was carrying a lantern and a strange trumpet.

"Hello big man! What's your name?"

Ganondorf glared at the _thing_ "Why do you care?"

"Hee hee! I dunno! I guess it's cause I don't have one!"

It leapt onto a broken down wall and started playing the trumpet.

Ganondorf sneered at the creature and stood up, stumbling a little from exhaustion.

Suddenly the skull kid blew a long note on his trumpet and four puppet-like golems dropped out of nowhere to surround Ganondorf. They began to hit Ganondorf, their wooden hands, surprisingly hard. Without even blinking Ganondorf stomped over to the skull kid, ignoring the slaps of the puppets, and snapped its trumpet in two.

"Hey!"

"Stupid scarecrow."

"Skull kid!"

"Same thing."

"It is not!"

"SHUT UP!"

Ganondorf hauled the skull kid up by the scruff of his shirt (if you could call it a shirt) so they were face to face.

"Look you stupid _thing_, just tell me where I am and _maybe_ I'll let you live."

Suddenly the skull kid disappeared, leaving Ganondorf with nothing but air in his fist. Ganondorf cursed and punched the fallen wall, splitting it in two. He didn't having someone make a fool out of him.

"Oooh! Naughty mouth! Your mommy will spank you for that!"

Ganondorf spun around and found the skull kid standing on another stone wall. He started toward the creature, but the skull kid shook its head.

"No no big man! If you get any closer I'll just disappear again."

He held up his trumpet and ran his fingers over the broken section. As he did the two halves welded together again, looking good as new.

"Hee hee! Your in the sacred grove! It's the resting place of the master sword and the door to the temple of time."

Ganondorf's eye twitched in annoyance "The master sword was removed. Unless your saying there's another sword that exactally the same that Link used to run me through."

"That was a long time ago big man! The doggie boy put it back. Ya'know he's a lot more fun than you are. You just slept and slept."

Ganondorf was about to retort when the triforce suddenly pulsed feebly. It only did that when another triforce was near.

"Doggie boy is coming back!" the skull kid leapt into the air and disappeared, no doubt off to "play" with Link.

Ganondorf cursed again. He knew Link alone couldn't defeat him normally, he had needed a lot of help to defeat him before, but he was still weakened horribly from the last encounter. Even if he _had_ been sleeping for a long time.

Link entered the sacred grove. he was a bleeding from wounds the golems had given him during the Skull Kid's "game". He stepped forward, his triforce pulsing. He closed his eyes and began to step in one direction, then another, seeing where he had to step to make it pulse stronger. If you didn't know what he was doing it would have looked like some sort of strange dance. He finally located a constant direction; he slowly walked forward, following the pulse. He was getting closer, closer… suddenly he ran into a wall.

Link stumbled backwards and rubbed his nose, making sure it wasn't broken. He looked at the obstacle and found that it was the now-broken steps from the Temple of Time. Suddenly the direction the triforce lead changed and Link felt the cold metal blade of a dagger press against his neck.

"How did you find me Link?"

Link looked out of the corner of his eye at Ganondorf and opened his hands to show empty hands, a gesture of peace.

Ganondorf snorted "Oh really? How did you win against Skull Kid without weapons then? You certainly didn't beat him with your bare hands!"

Link gestured toward the entrance of the temple ruins. There lay his bow and arrows, which he had discarded before he entered.

Ganondorf smirked at his enemy's stupidity "You should never leave your weapons Link, now you're going to die for it!"

He slashed his dagger at Link's neck, only to find it was now empty air. Link was already backing up. Ganondorf cursed again, that little freak was annoyingly fast.

Link did not however, head for his weapons. Instead he held up his empty hands again. Ganondorf was curious despite himself, why would Link try at peace?

"All right, talk fast then."

Of course Link didn't talk, Ganondorf realized he had never heard him talk; instead he headed toward the entrance of the sacred grove, pointedly avoiding his bow and arrows. Ganondorf gritted his teeth in annoyance and followed.

The world outside the sacred grove was Hell on earth. There was no sign life, not even a deku baba. The ground was bare and half of the cliffs looked like they had a giant bite taken out of them. The sky was entirely cloudless, a clear sign of drought. The blue of the sky looked garishly cheery in contrast to everything else.

Ganondorf stared at the scene in shock, even he had never been able to cause this much damage, and there wasn't even a trace of magic. What ever had done this had used brute force alone.

"It's called muerte."

Ganondorf turned to Link in surprise, he had spoken!

Link continued without looking at Ganondorf "It can only be locked away with the triforce seal."

Ganondorf began to smile, and it wasn't a kind smile. The triforce seal required all three pieces of the triforce to perform it. So in other words, Link and Zelda needed him alive.

"So the hero of time and the princess need me to help? Well well, how the mighty have fallen."

Link was silent for a moment then "Zelda isn't the one with the triforce of wisdom, she gave it to the twilight princess."

Ganondorf's eyebrows rose even higher "Ah yes, the one that Zant unsurped, pity I had to use the power that turned her into an imp to fight you. That form suited her, it was weak."

Link's eyes narrowed and clenched his teeth, willing himself not to attack Ganondorf for that.

Ganondorf's grin grew wider "Ah, so she's your sweetheart? So why isn't she here?"

Link began to walk again. He half hoping that Ganondorf wouldn't follow, but the king of evil was curious now, and follow he did.


	2. Chapter 2

_He was five years old. Ganondorf had just finished his first caravan raid and they were heading home laden heavily with spoils. Then an alarm had been sounded._

"_KNIGHTS!"_

_They broke into a run, drawing their daggers as they did. As they ran, Ganondorf glanced back, and caught sight of one of the mounted metal warriors. It proved to be a grave mistake. He tripped over a stone and before he could move, the knight was upon him, the cold metal of a sword at his back. The other Gerudo skidded to a halt, daggers ready._

_The knight who held the sword yelled at the Gerudo "IF YOU MOVE I'LL KILL HIM!"_

_All the women stopped dead in their tracks, no doubt in anyone's mind that the knight would carry out his threat._

_The hylian knight nodded in approval. "I don't want any trouble, just give back what you have stolen and I'll let you go free." _

_The Gerudo were motionless for a moment, and then they began to come forward one at a time to put their treasures on the ground. Ganondorf cringed as he saw the valuables that they were giving up._

_The knight slowly dismounted so he could get a better angle with his sword on Ganondorf's neck. He looked at his prisoner for the first time. His face showed surprise so completely that Ganondorf would have laughed if his life hadn't been in the man's hands._

"_Well well! I never thought I would catch one of the rare male Gerudo under my sword! It's quite an honor."_

_Ganondorf glared at him, and the knight smiled._

"_These treasures aren't your's, it's a pity the Gerudo resort to thievery. Your skills could be put to a good cause. I've always wanted to establish a treaty with the Gerudo, but I don't have the authority."_

_It was Ganondorf's turn to be surprised, and the knight laughed. Suddenly he seemed to have an idea._

"_Would you consider becoming my apprentice? It would be a wonderful start to a peace between our people. Though I must warn you many of the knights will hate you for being a Gerudo, so it will be dangerous."_

_Ganondorf was silent for a moment then he looked the knight strait in the eye "A Gerudo is not afraid of danger. I will ask our leaders to consider your offer." _

_He already knew that, as the Gerudo prince, his request would not be denied._

_The knight's smile turned ecstatic "That- that's wonderful! Just tell the gaurds that Sir Giffard sent you."_

Ganondorf stared at the forever closed door to the twilight realm. His face remained expressionless but he gave a barely noticeable shuttered as he saw the stain of his blood on the stone. Link walked up to the metal stand where the mirror of twilight had once stood and ran his fingers over it, as he always did when he visited the Arbiter's Grounds.

"Am I suppose to guess at what happened since your too _simple_ to talk?"

Link shrugged.

Ganondorf's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. He reminded himself, for the thousandth time, that if Muerte needed the triforce seal to lock him away he would probably kill everyone, even a fellow agent of evil, as well as ridding him of Link.

"Well Zant said that the mirror was the only door to the twilight realm. You said that the twilight princess is now the wielder of the triforce of wisdom. I see no mirror so there is no way to get to her. Except that you wouldn't bother finding me, much less bringing me here, if the triforce seal couldn't be completed." He paused "And while I'm _sure_ the _wise_ Midna could regularly figure out what you wanted her to know my attribute is power, _not_ wisdom, power that I will soon use to strangle you if you don't tell me how we get to her!"

Link was silent for a moment longer.

"The triforce calls out to itself. We might be able to bring Midna back if we activated ours."

"Let me guess, you have no idea how to activate them, but I know how to so I'm suppose to use mine instead."

Link nodded.

Ganondorf rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth so hard that it was a wonder they didn't shatter "Wonderful idea, except mine is too busy keeping me from dying from the hole in my chest."

Link took a deep breath and counted to ten, it was amazing how fast he had started to hate Ganondorf "One triforce should be sufficient, just tell me how to do it."

Ganondorf smiled, glad to have knowledge Link didn't "You just concentrate on it, or is that too hard for you wolf boy?"

_"I'd rather be a wolf than a pig."_ Link thought as he held his left hand towards the black stone. He stared at the symbol on the back of his hand, willing it to call Midna.

He felt something pulsing, like a second heart. The symbol began to glow, his senses sharpened.

And he turned into a wolf.

Ganondorf burst out laughing "You really don't know how to use it do you! That's just _pitiful_!"

Link examined his wolf form quietly, actually a little pleased with the new development. He had only ever transformed before when he came in contact with dark magic. It was quite useful to transform by just concentrating.

But it still didn't solve the problem of calling Midna. He stared at the stone, trying to figure out what to do. Then he began to howl. It was a bit of a sad song, but it was one that Midna had hummed from time to time.

Five beams of light shot from the pillars around the chamber, each one a different color; the only color missing was yellow. Ganondorf looked up, no longer laughing, and saw the five living sages on their pillars, their masks glowing with light. The marks of the triforce on both Link and Ganondorf's hands glowed and shot out their own light, landing in the center of the mirror. All seven of the lights faded, leaving the mirror of twilight in their place.

The runes on the mirror began to shine once again, and they projected their light onto the black stone. The stone seemed to give way, revealing the path to the twilight realm.


	3. Chapter 3

_Ganondorf approached the gates of Castle Town. Only two other Gerudo had come along with him. One was the current second in command, Saskia. It had been decided that an adult should come along. The other was Nabooru, his twin and best friend. She claimed that he needed someone to "watch his back" but Ganondorf had a sneaking suspicion she was just curious about what Castle Town looked like._

_Ganondorf heard the loading of a crossbow but Saskia motioned for the two of them not to attack, a moment later a command rung out._

"_HALT IN THE NAME OF THE KING!"_

_The three complied, all of them looking slightly amused as a pompous looking guard sauntered down from his post at the wall top._

"_Well well well! It looks like I caught myself three thieves."_

_Saskia smiled at him the way a cat might smile at a mouse "Are you really so simple as to think we would walk through the front gate if we didn't have a legitimate excuse?"_

_The guard turned red "Oh really, and what is that!?"_

_Ganondorf stepped forward, eyeing the man with the crossbow that was still on the wall incase he decided to get trigger happy "A man named Sir Giffard asked me to come."_

_The look on the guard's face was priceless, his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and his mouth dropped open in shock "But that's- why would he- impossible!"_

_A voice sounded from behind the stunned guard "Not impossible at all, I assure you."_

_The man spun around to face Sir Giffard, noticeably surprised._

_The knight smiled at Ganondorf while speaking to the guards "I would like you to meet my new apprentice."_

Midna materialized seconds later in front of Link her expression infinitely confused "How did you do this?"

Link stared at her, disbelieving that it had actually worked. He looked pointedly at the triforce mark on his paw.

Midna's whole face lit up in a smile "I should have known you wouldn't give up Link." She ran down the steps and gave him a crushing bear hug. Link licked her on the face and she laughed.

Ganondorf spoke up from behind him "As _touching_ as this scene is, a certain mutt has made a miscalculation."

Midna looked up and froze "Link, what-"

Ganondorf was hunched over in pain and clutching the wound on his chest in an effort to stop the blood that now seeped from it. When his triforce had added to the mirror, it drained it dearly. "Ah yes, there hasn't been time for explanations yet. Well since we don't have time for the long version right now: an evil creature called Muerte is going to destroy the world and you need me too defeat it. Now_ if_ you don't mind."

Midna looked too Link (who she was still clutching like a teddy bear) for confirmation and then cast a spell to warp them away. The three dissolved into black fragments and were sucked into the dark portal that still hovered over the desert.

Ganondorf woke slowly, the last thing he could remember was being in the Mirror Chamber. He glanced at the wound in his chest. It was gone. If it wasn't for the tell-tale gap and bloodstains on his armor and shirt, he might have thought it had never been there at all.

He looked at his surroundings slowly, eyes darting around in a habitual effort to take in as much of the situation as he could. He was lying on a cot in a stone room; the only features he could see were a door and two windows. He got up slowly, testing each muscle before he put his weight on it.

He walked over to the windows first, and to his surprise found himself looking on the courtyard of Hyrule Castle. It was strange to be looking on it as neither a ruler nor an invader. He hadn't seen it this way since he been Giffard's apprentice.

The door opened and Ganondorf whirled around, scolding himself for not hearing the approaching footsteps. It was Princess Zelda. She had obviously not expected him to be awake.

"You heal quickly."

Ganondorf eyed her warily as she held out a plate containing breakfast. He might have ignored it completely except that he was ravenously hungry, and knew he was needed. He walked over to her grudgingly and took the plate, noticing with delight (not that he showed it) that it contained leever meat.

"So why is the princess serving me breakfast?"

"The servants don't know you're here, they swore to burn you at the stake if you ever came back."

"Charming." He sat down on the cot and started eating "why haven't you sworn the same?"

Zelda smiled "I do not hold the triforce of wisdom for nothing."

Ganondorf stopped eating "Link said that you had given it to Midna."

"So that's how he got you to agree to get her! Well I did give it to Midna at one time but she returned it, you were there actually. It was right after you had possessed me I believe. I suppose you were too busy changing into Ganon."

There was no bitterness in her voice when she mentioned him using her as a puppet, encouraging him to forgive Link as she did him.

Ganondorf laughed "I guess the hero has finally learned to lie!"

"Only when he needs to."

"Only fools lie when they don't need to."

Zelda looked at him curiously "And you Ganondorf? Why did you lie about your loyalty all those years ago?"

His look snapped over to her, anger in his eyes "You know nothing of those matters _princess_. I am your ally for now, but _never _your friend."

Zelda was quiet, then she picked up the now empty plate and headed toward the door. She put her hand onto the doorknob and stopped.

"It's amazing how little time 'never' can turn out to be Ganondorf."

Then she left.


	4. Chapter 4

_Ganondorf's practice sword broke on the target and he winced, knowing that he would get a lecture on pulling his blows during practice. At least he hadn't broken it on another apprentice during sparring this time. That little event had been added to the top of the other apprentices' "why all Gerudo are scum" list. It was a very long list._

_Ganondorf heard footsteps behind him, but didn't turn around. Apparently it freaked people out when he knew they were coming while they were still on the other side of the court (another thing to the list). He only turned when the person was a few feet away from him._

_It was another apprentice, Ganondorf thought his name was Armel. Ganondorf waited patiently for the standard speech about why he should go back to the desert, but that wasn't what the boy said._

"_You defeated one of the knights yesterday right?" Ganondorf nodded, surprised the news had traveled so fast._

_The boy's face showed his disgust at having to talk to a Gerudo plainly "Well… my older brother, Chariton, he isn't so great a fighter. Anyway I was wondering…" he gulped as if stopping himself from throwing up "If you could try and help him."_

_Ganondorf's expression turned to pure shock "Is this a joke?"_

"_Unfortunately no."_

"_Why are you coming to _me _about it?!"_

"_The knights can't seem to help. And Gerudo or not, your still the best apprentice that's been here in the last century"_

_Ganondorf just stared at the Armel for a moment, then he nodded._

Link and Midna were sitting at a table in the library, waiting for Zelda. The table was piled higher then death mountain with books, and both Midna and Link had one in their hands, which they would frequently exchange with one in the pile. The doors opened and Zelda came in, motioning for the servants to leave. She made her way over to the table and moved one of the pillars of books so she could see her two companions. Midna closed her book and looked Zelda up and down, making sure she still had all her limbs.

"I still think you should have left a little of the wound in his chest Zelda. It would give us a better chance of defeating him when this is over."

"We need him to be at full strength for the battle with Muerte."

Link was scanning a book, glancing at the two princesses every now and then. He gave a little shout of triumph and pointed to a line on the page. The two girls quickly rushed to his side of the table to see what he had found. It was under a book called Foreign Monsters. Zelda began to read it out loud:

One of the most dangerous creatures from over the mountains is the Muerte. There is currently only one of its kind in existence. It has twenty tentacles, each covered with poisonous quills. The body section is composed of millions on tiny eyeballs, each one under a usually closed impenetrable lid, and billions of fang-rimmed mouths in between. It is about the size of Hyrule Castle, and can travel at unrivaled speeds. During its only attack in recorded history, it would attack Hyrule in short, devastating spurts before retreating to the other side of the mountains. Three brave warriors called on the aid of the goddesses and became wielders of the triforce. They ventured over the mountains to defeat Muerte and used the Triforce Seal, the only way to stop the creature. Sadly they were mortally wounded during the fight and only survived long enough to personally return the triforce to the sacred realm.

The three were silent in shock, and it wasn't them that broke the silence.

"Over the mountains? That should be interesting."

They spun around to find that Ganondorf had come into the library. He laughed at their expressions, which, instead of surprised, ranged from scolding to murderous.

"I don't stay in a room just because someone wants to kill me. Any thief of worth can avoid servants and guards." He came over to look at the book "Anyway, I couldn't let you three have time to plot how to kill me when this is over."

None of them protested against the last statement, it _was_ true after all.

He examined a map that was on the page opposite the paragraph about the Muerte. It showed the mountains in great detail, explaining the pathways out and into Hyrule.

"It looks like it's impossible to bring any horses. I suppose we must go on foot."

Midna glared at Ganondorf "I suppose you know _all_ about traveling the mountains do you?"

Ganondorf replied without looking up, his tone musing "You know you aren't necessary for the triforce seal. It wouldn't be fatal to lose you."

His voice was emotionless but the threat was obvious. Link's looked as if he would like nothing better then to make a fresh wound on Ganondorf's chest. Midna snarled.

"I'd like to see you try pig-face."

Ganondorf smiled in mock innocence "Try what? I don't think I know what you're talking about, though perhaps I will figure it out if any on you three annoy me enough."

Even Zelda glared at him for that, but he acted as if he didn't notice "I see that Link hasn't retrieved the master sword yet. I assume his bow and arrows are also where he left them. Perhaps we should go there next, I believe there is a portal above the sacred grove?"

Midna glared at him "We don't take orders from you Ganondorf. Only Link and I need to go. You can stay here and marinate in your own filth."

Ganondorf looked up at her "No use at all… I have something I want to get from the temple of time, and as I explained earlier, I don't plan on letting you three have time to decide how to kill me."

"Well you can just 'plans' up your-" Zelda placed a hand on Midna's shoulder and gave her a meaningful look Midna gritted her teeth "_Fine_."

Ganondorf smiled smugly "I knew you'd see it my way. I'll meet you at the eastern gate."

He was gone before any of them could protest; it was amazing how quickly someone the size of a Goron could move.


	5. Chapter 5

_Ganondorf followed Sir Giffard through the streets of hyrule. "So are you going to tell me where are we're going?"_

_Sir Giffard smiled "We're visiting my house, I have a present there for you." _

"_What's a present?"_

"_An object you give to show your appreciation."_

"_Oh."_

_Ganondorf had never been to his master's house. Sir Giffard had wanted to let him stay there but the majority of the knights had wanted to keep Ganondorf under watch, so he slept at Hyrule castle._

"_Here we are."_

_The outside of the house was nothing special, it was made of stone and had a red roof. The inside was a one room with nothing but a table and a bed. _

_Sir Giffard headed toward the bed and started pulling at something beneath it "Drat, it's stuck. You know most people say this place needs a woman's touch, I suppose it does, but I haven't met someone I want to be my wife yet."_

"_I woman's touch?"_

"_You know, flowers and such." He laughed when he saw Ganondorf's confused expression "Sorry, I forgot what type of women you're raised by. Ah there we go!"_

_The object came loose from the bed with a clunk and Ganondorf's eyes widened. It was a sword, but the strangest sword he had ever seen. For starters it was huge, more than half Sir Giffard's height and width. It was mostly rectangle shaped, with a flattened football shape at the end. While it was mostly flat, the edge of the blade looked as though it could cut through the thickest of armor. The part that was flat was covered in runes._

_Sir Giffard smiled at Ganondorf's expression "I thought you'd like it. This is a sword that is usually used by golem knights, a living knight barely has the strength to hold it up, much less wield it."_

_He tilted the blade so it caught the sunlight "I've heard that Gerudo men grow to be amazingly strong, and I have confidence that if you work at it hard enough, then you'll eventually be able to master it. You're still too small right now, but I though you might as well start trying."_

Midna, Link, and Ganondorf materialized in the sacred grove. Link picked up his bow and arrows. He smiled, the quiver was a few short, Skull Kid must have had some fun. He slung it over his shoulder and made his way over to the master sword. As soon as he touched it the master sword's sheath appeared on his back. He pulled it from its pedestal, the ring of the metal almost musical. He couldn't help but grin, the sword felt so _right_ in his hand, like it was part of him. He gave a few experimental slashes before sheathing it.

Midna smiled, he looks just as heroic as the first time he received the sword. Ganondorf just rolled his eyes and headed toward the door leading to the temple of time. He tapped the doors that looked like they lead nowhere, hoping that he wouldn't have to ask Link to open them for him. They remained firmly shut and Ganondorf sighed.

"Hey mutt boy! Could you stop admiring you shiny little sword and open these already?!"

Midna glared at Ganondorf but Link obligingly came over to the doors, he looked at Midna. She sighed and joined them.

Link walked toward the doors and sent a mental request to them,_"would you let us in please?"_

The doors swung open, revealing the watery looking barrier between the sacred grove and the temple of time.

Link and Midna walked through calmly but Ganondorf was a little slower, eyeing the doors with caution, half afraid they would slam shut on him. Finally he walked through the barrier and into the temple of time.

"Awww, is the big bad Gerudo scared of a wittle door?"

Ganondorf glared at her "Just- shut up."

He stomped over to the pedestal in the temple of time and up the blue steps made of light in front of them.

Link sighed and looked at Midna pleadingly.

Midna rolled her eyes "Well did you _see_ him? He was practically wetting his pants!"

Link sighed and followed Ganondorf into the inner temple. He hoped all the monsters were gone by now.

But Link realized as soon as he entered the doors, that they had no idea where Ganondorf had gone.

Ganondorf was far ahead of the other two by the time they had even entered the temple. To his delight an armos tried to stop him in one of the first few rooms, giving his something to take out his anger on. The blue golem was reduced to a pile of sand before it even swung its hammer.

Since he was both taller and stronger that Link and Midna put together, Ganondorf just smashed through the obstacles that had given the two so much trouble. Soon he reached his destination: Darknut's chamber.

He picked his way through the discarded armor left behind by the now motionless knight-golem until he found the giant sword that the creature had been using, _his_ sword. He grinned, his first smile in centuries that didn't have malice in it, and swung it onto his shoulder, the metal meeting his armor with a familiar chink of metal on metal.

Of all the things that had happened while he had been an apprentice, getting the sword was the one thing he never regreted.


	6. Chapter 6

"_Come ON Chariton! A moblin could have blocked that last attack! How easy does Ganondorf have to go on you?!"  
"I'm TRYING Armel!"_

_Ganondorf smacked Chariton on the shoulder with his wood sword again "You shouldn't let yourself be distracted Chariton."_

_Chariton just grunted. Ganondorf stabbed at Chariton, purposely leaving a huge opening. Chariton actually managed to dodge that one, but he ignored the opening. Instead he backed off as far as he could, panting. He tripped over a stone as he backed up and fell onto his back, his sword went flying and narrowly missed hitting Armel in the head._

_Ganondorf wordlessly held out a hand to help Chariton up "That should be enough for today, we're starting to lose our light."_

_Armel sighed "I can't believe you're related to me Chariton, you're hopeless!"_

_Chariton looked like a scolded puppy "I'm sorry, I just can't fight."_

_Ganondorf put his wood sword down "Actually it isn't that bad. Your technique is practically flawless, you just panic when your opponent attacks."_

_Chariton looked surprised and pleased but his face quickly turned dismal again "Well that won't do me much good in a fight now will it?"_

"_You just have to stand up to your fears."_

_Armel snorted "Like that's ever gonna happen."_

_Ganondorf whacked Armel on the head._

"_OW! What the heck was that for?!"_

"_Show some confidence; you're a family after all."_

_Chariton saw the look his brother was giving Ganondorf and quickly intervened "Who's you're family Ganondorf?"_

_Ganondorf smiled "All gerudo are a family, but by blood I have a twin sister named Nabooru, our mother's name is Saskia."_

"_What about your father?"_

"_What about him?"_

"_Well who is he?"_

"_I don't know, I've never met him."_

_"So he's not a gerudo?"_

_"Gerudo never match with other gerudo, we're too closely related."_

_"Match? You mean marry right?"_

_"No."_

_Armel looked disgusted "So in other words you're a bast-"_

"_ARMEL!"_

_Ganondorf shrugged "Yes, I suppose I am."_

Ganondorf was flipping through a book in the library. Despite all of their want for haste, it would take several days to get everything they needed for the trip over the mountains. They needed supplies and money, and Ganondorf needed the chest plate on his armor repaired. The smith needed the old armor for a model so, despite his protests, Ganondorf had to make do with normal clothes until his armor was finished. He was currently wearing a black tunic and brown pants. He was wearing no gems or metal of any kind, his hair no longer had the golden crown-like adornment holding it up and his hair hung down to his chin. He had despised giving up his finery, each piece was a trophy of his thievery triumphs and no self-respecting gerudo would give them up easily. However it was the only way that the other three would let him keep his sword, which was currently hung on his back in a makeshift sheath.

Technically speaking he was suppose to stay in his chambers, but he wasn't about to let someone order him around. Besides, he was getting rusty in his thievery and sneaking around servants and guards was a good way to practice.

The current book he was reading was on the history of Hyrule. He suddenly stopped, a section catching his eye.

**The Gerudo War**

Ganondorf, the leader of the gerudo, aimed to usurp the royal family by claiming the triforce, a task which required the three spiritual stones and the ocarina of time. The stones resided with the kokiri, the gorons, and the zora. Ganondorf visited each of these races, demanding the spiritual stones. When they were not given to him he set monsters on the races, saying he would remove them only if he was given the spiritual stones.

The Ancient Hero, or the Hero of Time, vanquished all three of these monsters thoroughly, destroying Ganondorf's hold on the races. Ganondorf, seeing that trying to obtain the triforce was useless, attacked Castle City anyway. Up until this point Ganondorf had pretended to be loyal to the king, so Castle City was unprepared. Despite this, Ganondorf's attack was unsuccessful. He was caught and executed by the six sages four days later.

Ganondorf snorted, apparently the sages hadn't revealed his survival of the execution until much after this book had been published. He wondered how much had been revealed about the more recent battle. He was about to close the book when the next section caught his eye, and his expression turned to horror.

**The Slaughter of the Gerudo**

After the attack on Castle City, many of the knights decided to "exterminate" the gerudo, this decision was independent of the Hyrulian government. They leaked poison into the only oasis in the great desert, called the gerudo desert at the time. Once the poison had either killed of weakened most of the gerudo, the knights attacked. No gerudo was left alive. The surviving knights that participated in this were stripped of all rank and exiled beyond the mountains.

Ganondorf felt numb, as if he was watching his life through another's eyes. He had known the gerudo were gone from the desert, but never had he imagined that this is what had happened. _"No gerudo was left alive"_ His mother, his friends. _"poison"_ They hadn't even been grated dying a warrior's death.

He didn't notice the tears running down his cheeks until they landed on the page. He shoved the book away, as if that could stop it from being true. The tears streamed from his eyes now, he slammed his fist against the table, cracking it into pieces. His wasn't angry, he was too hurt to be angry. He smashed the table again, the splinters dug into his fist, but the pain was a welcome distraction.

Only one thought kept him from ending his own life right there _"There is a gerudo left alive. Me. The gerudo haven't died out as long as I am still here."_


	7. Chapter 7

_Chariton came into the stables just as Ganondorf finished grooming a black stallion "Is that your horse Ganondorf?"_

_Ganondorf nodded "His name is Rajnish, I was allowed him because everyone thinks he is a demon horse."_

_"Well I could see why they'd think that. I mean the black coat, the red eyes…"_

_"And everyone who tried to ride him ended up dead."_

_"What?!"_

_"They wanted him to do the same to me." Ganondorf smiled smugly "He hasn't though. The mistake the others made is they tried to be his master. I know that he is better than me, he is my master, not the other way around._" _He sighed "It's too bad I can't bring him to the desert next week."_

_Chariton started "You're leaving?"_

_"Yes, I must take the test to become a full gerudo. If I survive, I'll be back within a few days."_

_Ganondorf handed Rajnish a sugar cube and headed out of the stable._

_"I-if you survive?"_

_"There is no guarantee I will."_

_"Why go?!"_

_Ganondorf stopped so quickly that Chariton almost ran into him "I am a gerudo Chariton, I always will be. And the test is something I must do."_

_Chariton looked taken aback, and an awkward silence hung between them._

_Chariton was the first to break it "So what do you need to do?"_

_"Everyone that takes the test is sent into the desert, we must find our way to the spirit temple. The only rule is that we cannot have the help of a full gerudo." He frowned "I have been away from the desert for so long, it is actually quite likely I won't survive."_

"All I'm saying is that he carries it around _a lot_."

Link grinned. Midna and he were currently discussing if Ganondorf's sword was his teddy bear.

"Well you have to admit he does! I mean seriously, is he going to start sucking his thumb next?"

Ganondorf was sitting on the cot in his room. His hands were shaking, they were un-bandaged and he had neglected even pulling the splinters out of them.

There was a knock on the door and Zelda came in, holding a plate with lunch on it. She handed it to Ganondorf, who took it silently, and sat down on the other end of the bed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?"

"I found the book next to the broken table, it was still open to the same page."

"I've already told you, we are _not_ considered friends."

Zelda nodded and was silent.

Ganondorf finished eating and handed her the plate. She took it but made no move to leave.

She gestured toward his hands "At least let me help with that."

Ganondorf shrugged and Zelda began pulling the splinters out.

"I suppose gerudo are use to pain? Most people would be howling when I touched the first splinter."

"After you have a sword stabbed through your chest everything else sort of pales in comparison." Ganondorf turned to her "Why are you even bothering with this?"

"I don't know anything about you except what I have learned from books. I never even spoke with you before Midna and Link brought you here. Who am I to judge you?"

She picked the last splinter out, she turned her face to his and smiled "The only time I left the city was when I fought you, I am barely allowed to leave the castle. Your turn."

Ganondorf's mouth remained shut.

"Unless you're too scared?"

Ganondorf glared at her, and then replied grudgingly "I can play the piano."

"I practice shooting crows from the highest tower in the castle."

"I can't swim."

"I hate dresses."

"I've never eaten fish."

"Father made me spend a month learning how to be lady-like."

"I was scared of trees until I was five."

"I'm scared of masks."

"My twin sister is the sage of spirit."

Zelda stopped, startled "Your sister? But that means that she…"

Ganondorf clamped his mouth shut. He had said it without thinking.

"…was one of your executioners."

Ganondorf turned away "You should go before someone misses you."

Zelda opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, but shut it after a moment and headed toward the door. Just as she was about to leave Midna phased through the door.

"Hello Zelda! Ganondorf, do you think your sword is more like a teddy bear, a pacifier, or a blankie?"

Ganondorf spun around his eyes wide with disbelief that someone would even be stupid enough to ask him that. Midna was gone before he even had time to get angry. There was a sound of Link shouting in surprise in the hall, he had probably been about to open the door on that side.

"He didn't answer Link, I think it's tie."


	8. Chapter 8

Before I start I just wanted to say thanks to all the people that have reviewed so far. You have _no_ idea how awesome it makes me feel to read those.

_Ganondorf covered his eyes with his arm in an attempt to block the sand that was blowing into them. Beside him, Nabooru did the same. The two had met up a few hours into the test and stuck together ever since. _

_Nabooru turned to her brother "Do you see any rocks we can use for cover?"_

_Ganondorf shook his head "I can't see very far, it could be right in front of us and I'd never know it."_

_Suddenly the ground beneath them began to tremble and the telltale spray of sand that a sandworm left appeared to their right. The two gerudo quickly put their backs against eachother and readied their daggers. The sandworm burst out of the sand and both of them simultaneously dropped to the ground and sliced at the creature as it sailed over head. Both daggers met their mark and the creature screeched before falling to the ground dead._

_Nabooru slung the corpse over her shoulder like a sack "Looks like we have dinner!"_

_As if by a signal, the wind dropped to a halt and the sand settled to the ground, leaving a fine layer of it over the two and their kill. The silhouette of the spirit temple was once again visible on the horizon._

_The siblings grinned wordlessly at eachother and started toward it._

_The smile dropped from Nabooru's face as quickly as it had come "Ganondorf… someone was buried in the sand."_

_Ganondorf whirled around to where she was looking and saw the telltale mound of sand that appeared around a body. He was the first to reach it and began desperately digging at the sand, but the body was deeply buried and the sand kept sliding back into place. Nabooru joined him, trying to hold the sand off, and finally they were able to reach an arm. Ganondorf grabbed a hold of it as if his own life depended on it, and pulled until the figure was completely out._

_But it wasn't a Gerudo that he had found. Somehow, Chariton had ended up buried under the sand in the desert._

Link snuck through the stables that night. Link was in wolf form, and though the horses knew he posed no danger the stable boy didn't. They were leaving tomorrow morning and Link wanted to say goodbye to Epona, who, despite Link's protests, had been put in a stall by the stable boy like any other horse. He passed several horses; several of them came over to see the wolf-boy that Epona kept talking about. Finally he reached Epona's stall.

She trotted up to the fence "Hello Link. I heard you're leaving tomorrow."

Link nodded sadly.

Epona whinnied comfortingly "It's all right, I know you can't take me with you. Perhaps we could go for one more run?"

Link nodded, happily this time, and unlatched the door with his paws. Epona trotted out. The two headed toward the stable door at a walk, each eyeing the other. As soon as they stepped outside they both took off. It had become a ritual of theirs to have midnight races.

The horse and wolf ran around the field at top speed, the moonlight glinted off them, turning their silent forms into magic in a way nothing else could.

Then suddenly there was another form beside them, no moonlight could reflect of this horse. Her black coat seemed to be night itself. She spared a challenging glance for the two before speeding ahead. Epona and Link both shared equal expressions of surprise, and then determination. They ran harder then they ever had before, trying desperately to catch up with the black mare. They lost track of how many times they charged around the field before they stopped, both their coats thick with sweat.

She trotted back to them, almost laughing "It looks like you still can't catch up hmm?"

Epona looked at her, confused and tried to reply between gasps for breath "Still?"

The black horse gave a whinnying laugh "So you don't remember? I supoose it's been along time since we battled you."

"We?"

She tilted her head to the side, revealing one of her red eyes "My warrior and I of course."

They both started as they recognized her. When they gave no indication of replying she continued "My great-great-grandfather was Ganondorf's steed as well." She tossed her head "My lineage are the fastest horses ever known, Ganondorf is the only one we have ever deemed worth carrying."

She looked at Link smugly "A category you certainly don't fit into."

Epona bristled, immediately defensive of Link "Well Ganondorf hasn't said goodbye to you now has he?!"

Lilith just laughed her horse's laugh "Don't be foolish, I only come to him when he needs me desperately. He doesn't even know where to say goodbye. I am not _his_ steed, he is _my_ warrior."

Without another word Lilith galloped off into the night.


	9. Chapter 9

_Ganondorf watched the sands around their campsite carefully, they had been lucky to find a stony spot, so creatures couldn't attack from strait under them, but sandworms could still jump onto the stone if they were hungry enough. He heard someone stirring behind him._

_"You're awake Chariton?"_

_"Y-yeah."_

_Ganondorf kept his eyes on the sand "Why are you in the desert?"_

_"I… thought that maybe I could help. I mean you've helped me so much."_

_Ganondorf frowned "Chariton, I appreciate the thought, but you're no Gerudo. It could be days before we even get a drink of water, and you're not trained for that."_

_"… I'm sorry. I didn't want to be a burden."_

_Ganondorf shook his head "What's done is done. I doubt you could reach the edge of the desert alive, so you'll just have to come with us. You'll have to learn to survive in the desert, fast."_

_He slid a dagger across the stone over to Chariton "Start by having that beside you at all times, even when you sleep."_

_Chariton nodded and secured the dagger to his belt "I understand."_

The four adventurers clamored over the mountainside, or rather the three light adventurers clamored. Midna simply floated along, occasionally yelling a cheer or two back at them.

"Let's go! We've almost reached the cliff! And after that there's only about a thousand more cliffs!"

She giggled and landed on the stone ledge above them.

Link looked at her, exasperated, and clamored up after her. A few seconds later Ganondorf joined them, mentally thanking the goddesses for making the desert flat. He was in his normal attire again, and armor never seemed so heavy.

Zelda took quite a while to join them. The princess wasn't exactly the fittest of the lot. She was dressed in a page's outfit, a bow and quiver on her back and a thin sword at her side, her hair was pulled back in a braid and her face was bright red, she was sweating in places she hadn't even known existed. She collapsed onto the ledge with a huff.

"I never… thought… this would be… so hard!"

Midna rolled her eyes "I know it's not you're fault, but this is yet another example of why a life of luxury is not fitting for a princess."

Zelda smiled "If you can persuade my father that then I am forever indebted to you."

She got up slowly "All right, I'm ready to-"

Her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the ledge again

Ganondorf groaned "Oh for dins sake! Muerte will have destroyed Hyrule before we even get half way up the mountain!"

Zelda looked guilty and made another attempt to get up. Link and Midna both glared at Ganondorf.

Zelda collapsed again and Ganondorf sighed, he walked over to her and knelt down "Get on my back."

"What?"

"You heard me. It would be just plain idiotic to have the holder of the triforce of wisdom die before we even got across the mountains."

Zelda still didn't move, Ganondorf sighed and rolled his eyes. Then he grabbed Zelda and swung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Zelda's eyes widened to the size of saucers but she saw the sense in it and didn't complain.

Link and Midna both struggled to hold back laughs as Ganondorf started back up the mountain. They were only partially successful, breaking into muffled snorts as they followed.

Midna floated a few feet in front of Link, turned backward so she could talk to him "Maybe all the women should be carried?"

Link smiled and gave a little imitation howl.

She grinned "I suppose you _have_ carried me a lot already." Suddenly she spun around in a full circle, casting an illusion on herself that made her look like Ganondorf "Me Ganondorf! Me in hurry! Me carry princesses like vegetables!"

Ganondorf spun around to confront her but Midna had already removed the illusion "So do you know what's on the other side of the mountain Link?"

Link shook his head.

"Pity. You know, my kingdom isn't the only one back home. There were three Interlopers and each of them started their own kingdom. None of us get along very well"

Ganondorf suddenly started paying attention, after all the other kingdoms might turn out to be his allies. He wasn't paying attention to the mountain any more, he didn't notice flawlessly spherical stone the size of a large cat until he put his hand on it, and it bit him.

He gave out a yell and stepped back suddenly, almost losing his footing and causing a shower of rocks to cascade onto Midna and Link.

Midna scowled up at him "What the heck was that for?!"

Ganondorf didn't answer, the rock had sprouted an eye. The front of the stone split in two, revealing several razor-sharp teeth, and four tektike like legs sprouted out of its sides.

Zelda was twisting her head left and right to try and get a look at what ever was causing such strange noises. Ganondorf slowly put her down, trying not to spook it, just as he was reaching for his sword it attacked. The thing flew through the air with a screech and Ganondorf whipped out his, Zelda leapt back as so not to get cut and the sword sliced the creature in two, spraying them with silvery blood. The blood burned, leaving red scorches down on both Ganondorf and Zelda's skin.

If it had been nothing but that it would have been a shaking encounter, but at the creature's dying screech, thousands more of is kindred leapt from their hiding places along the mountainside.

Link and Midna had clamored up the rocks between them and their allies in seconds, Link with the master sword drawn and Midna with twin bolts of twili magic ready. Zelda swung her bow off her shoulder and loaded it with an arrow.

Seconds later, the creatures attacked with a screech of war.


	10. Chapter 10

_"It's getting close now right? We're almost there?"_

_Nabooru sighed "We get there when we get there Chariton. Keep a lookout in the sand instead of complaining. How do you put up with him Ganondorf?!'_

_Ganondorf smiled "He's actually quite pleasant outside the desert."_

_Suddenly the sand began to tremble violently, both Nabooru and Ganondorf turned pale._

_Chariton gripped his dagger tightly "Why are you two scared?! Doesn't this happen normally?!"_

_Neither of them answered, instead they each grabbed one of Chariton's arms and began to run, pulling him along as best they could._

_Barely feet behind them, three sandworms burst from the earth, and then a sandworm the size of a horse blasted from the sand, the grains stung the three like little missiles. The worms landed only inches behind them and they shot ahead through the sand, cutting them off from escape._

Zelda shot an arrow into one of the stone creatures, but it simply bounced off, she armed her next arrow with a bomb and the creature shattered, raining them with more acidic blood.

_Two of the worms leapt through the air and Nabooru slashed them both into two pieces with her dagger, inches from her face._

Midna fired two bolts into the stone creatures and slammed twin ones into a creature while the magic was still in her fist.

_Ganondorf slashed three worms with one fluid motion of his daggers, but another two bit him, drawing blood, before plunging back into the sand._

Link slashed two creatures and killed another with a bomb loaded arrow.

_Then the giant Sandworm burst from the sand, hitting all three of them at once, they were knocked to the ground, one of Nabooru's hands was wedged under Ganondorf, the dagger pierced into his shoulder._

Ganondorf slashed five creatures into pieces with one swoop of his sword, then he grabbed another that was leaping at him and threw it into a seventh, both of them shattering.

_There was an opening in the circle, and they were running from the sandworms. The smaller ones were either dead or wounded too badly to keep up, but the giant one was right behind them. It leapt, coming for the kill. Chariton tripped and the other two were pulled down with them._

Zelda put away her bow, they were two close to shoot at now, and drew her sword.

_And suddenly it was quiet. Ganondorf opened his eyes and saw the sandworm's teeth inches from his face. He (to his shame) made a half yell before realizing the creature was limp. He turned his head and found that Chariton had his dagger embedded in the sandworm's throat. Ganondorf began to laugh as he pushed the dead sandworm off them._

_"It looks like you won a battle Chariton! And we ran all the way to the spirit temple!"_

_Nabooru helped Chariton up, grinning "Well! It looks like three gerudo passed the test after all!"_

_Chariton started in surprise "Three? But I'm not-"_

_Ganondorf shook his head "You passed the test right along side us Chariton, welcome to the gerudo ranks brother!"_

And then there were no more of the stone creatures, their blood had left red burns all over everyone, but they were alive.

Midna dismissed the bolts on her hands "All in favor of never doing that again say aye!"

Ganondorf smirked "What's the matter twilight princess? Scared of a few rocks?"

Then he blacked out.


	11. Chapter 11

_Ganondorf and Chariton were in the training court of the castle._ _Chariton fingered his new dagger, the symbol of his gerudo rank. The blade was sharp and deadly. The hilt was made of __walnut,__ and there was a wolf carved into it on each side, the wolves' eyes were emeralds. Ganondorf grinned at him._

_"It's quite a work of art, not that I would trade mine for it mind you."_

_Ganondorf's dagger was ebony, with a boar carved in it, whose eyes were rubies, Chariton smiled nervously "I still think this is a mistake, I'm horrible at fighting and-"_

_"Chariton you stabbed one of the biggest sandworms in a century strait through the hear! Stop doubting yourself."_

_As if to prove otherwise, Armel entered the court at that moment "Hey look at that! The idiot returns! I told you that you'd come back with you're tail between your legs Chariton! I suppose Ganondorf had to quit his test or whatever to bring you back! I really shouldn't have stuck him with you."_

_Chariton looked at his feet "He finished the test before I got there."_

_Armel grinned "Sounds like he got lucky." He left, the expression on his face made Ganondorf want to grind his teeth._

_Chariton looked at his feet "I don't really want anyone to know that I'm considered a gerudo now."_

"_You're ashamed of it then"_

"… _Just don't tell."_

_Ganondorf frowned but nodded "Very well brother."_

Link and Midna sat together at the fireside, Zelda had fallen asleep quickly and Ganondorf still hadn't regained consciousness. Both of them were quiet, staring into the flames.

Midna suddenly giggled "Maybe we should have just thrown a few rocks at Ganondorf when we battled."

Link smiled and rolled his eyes.

"Hey, I'm allowed to be hard on _him_! I mean seriously it's Ganondorf we're talking about. We're gonna have to battle him again, and besides-"

Link raised his hand to stop her, her a look that said "_I kinda already know that."_

Midna grinned "You know you not talking drives him crazy, I think he might throw you over the cliff if you don't start, Muerte or no Muerte."

Link shrugged, grinning.

"You are _so_ doing it on purpose."

He put on his best innocent face.

She sighed "I hope this takes a long time. I'm going to miss you when I go back."

There was silence and Link's expression twisted into something akin to pain "Then don't go back."

Midna turned her head away.

"You know I have to Link. There aren't any others in my blood line, and…" she closed her eyes "the bloodline will need to be continued. I am going to marry."

"I could come with you."

Midna shook her head.

Link looked close to tears, but he nodded "As you wish."

Midna shook her head again "Link, it's not like that! It's-" she paused for a moment and then conjured a sphere of black magic surrounded by red sparks "Look, pretend this is the twilight realm." She took her hand away and the sphere shivered before shattering "If the guiding hand is taken away then it's destroyed." She conjured another, and then she picked up a pebble from her side with her other hand and tossed it into the sphere. The pebble disengaged before it even passed the red lightning "If an intruder comes, they won't survive." She lowered her hand, dismissing the magic "I don't want that to happen Link. Even if it means we have to be apart."

Link simply resumed his silence.


	12. Chapter 12

_In a few minutes he would go through his ceremony to become a full fledged knight. He hadn't told anyone yet, he had gone through his coronation two years ago, on his fifteenth birthday. Which meant that all the gerudo would be loyal to the hylians._

_For the thousandth time he wondered if he was doing the right thing. They would no longer be thieves, and he wasn't sure if they could survive. Sir Giffard had assured him that the king had promised to solve this issue, but no solution had been reached._

_Ganondorf sighed and got up. There wasn't time to change his mind. He just had to trust that he was doing the right thing. He began to walk toward the ceremonial hall, and immersed in his thoughts as he was, he didn't realize someone was coming up behind him until he saw the flash of the sword coming at his neck._

_He dropped to the ground, mentally cursing himself for letting his guard down. Living in Castle City had dimmed his gerudo training. The sword clanged on the stone wall behind him, chipping a flake of it away._

_Ganondorf leapt to his feet and assessed his opponent. There were two of them, each dressed in full armor that hid their faces, the only distinction he could find between them was that the one who had just attacked him had a flaw along their chest plate. In the same moment Ganondorf realized how stupid it was not to at least bring a dagger with him, regardless of the fact weapons had been forbidden during the ceremony (he supposed someone must thing he would assassinate the king)._

_He leapt aside as the knight the flawed armor attacked again, the other knight was hanging back._

"_Why are you attacking me?"_

_Flaw-armor was the one to respond "No gerudo will ever become a knight while I am alive."_

_There was something familiar about the voice, but before Ganondorf could think on it the sword came at his neck again and Ganondorf just barely dodged. Ganondorf realized quite quickly that these knights were out to kill him, not just teach him a lesson. And his only weapons were his fists._

_The knight swung the sword, this time it was a clumsy swipe and it left an opening, Ganondorf took it without another thought._

_His fist plunged into the knight's chest, sending him flying back into to wall. Ganondorf leapt back, ready for another attack, but the knight didn't move._

_The flaw in the chest plate had split and buckled backward with the force of the blow, the jagged edge left had pierced through the knight's chest and strait into his heart. Blood now seeped from the wound._

_Ganondorf started in horror, he had not meant to kill the man. _

_The knight's companion rushed to his side "By the goddesses! What have you done Ganondorf?!"  
Ganondorf reeled back in renewed shock, for he recognized the voice, and realized where he had heard the now dead knight's voice before. The knight's companion removed both his and his dead comrade's helmet, confirming his suspicions. _

_The two knights were Chariton and Armel, and he had just killed Armel._

A small village stood In front of them, the buildings nostalgically similar to those in Ordon.

Midna sighed with relief "Finally! I thought we'd never see the other side of that blasted piece of rock!" she paused and gave a preemptive glare at Ganondorf "No I'm not afraid of rocks.

Ganondorf smirked. He had asked her that more times than he could count. Midna realized he had been ticked about his fear of the temple of time doors being pointed out, but it was just getting annoying.

Zelda interrupted before they could get into _another_ argument "Perhaps we should look for somewhere to exchange our rupees. I'm sure they hold some value here and we'll need the money."

Before they could come up with an objection she headed off, hoping that they would follow.

Everyone in the village stared at them. Zelda walked up to the first person she saw. The woman was dressed in a red skirt with a white blouse with a basket on her arm filled with bread.

"Excuse me ma'am, we're looking for a place where we might sell a few rupees, gems, do you know where we might go?"

The lady nodded, smiling "Of course dear! You want the jeweler's place. It's right down the street and to the right."

"Thank you ma'am."

"No trouble darling, it's not often we get visitors from over the mountains."

The lady stared at them for a moment as they followed her directions before she went on her way.

Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf emptied their wallets in front of the jeweler, Midna had no rupees. Link had a lot of rupees but they were mostly blue and green, with a few yellow, and two red. Ganondorf barely had any, he hadn't brought many before he was executed and certainly didn't get any since, but he did manage to fish out one purple. Zelda's purse, however, was filled to the brim with orange and silver.

The jeweler examined the gems silently.

Finally he indicated Link's pile "five hundred gold." He pointed to Ganondorf's lone rupee "twenty five" and then Zelda's "five thousand."

Midna whistled "You carry a lot of cash Zelda!"

Zelda blushed "I'm not supposed to be seen with any thing but the highest value rupees."

Ganondorf raised an eyebrow "You shouldn't carry that much money around, pickpockets aim for those people faster than you can blink, and I'm speaking from experience."

Somehow, Zelda doubted he was the victim of the experience "I'll keep that in mind Ganondorf, thank you.

They had their rupees exchanged and left in search of a hotel to spend the night.


	13. Chapter 13

_Ganondorf stood in front of the judges, his eyes fastened on their faces. It was strange how quickly a day of glory could turn to a day of despair. The podium was placed high up; it was so obvious that it was suppose to make people feel inferior that Ganondorf had once laughed at it. Now he was struggling not to feel the effect it was meant to have._

_The three judges were conversing over their final decision, and Ganondorf had no doubt that it would declare him a murderer. The only living people to have seen the fight were him and Chariton. Chariton had claimed that Ganondorf had attacked them. It was Ganondorf's word against Chariton's, and Ganondorf hardly believed that the word of a Gerudo would be the one seen as truth. The judges nodded as one and one of them came forward._

_"Ganondorf Dragmire! You have been found guilty of murder by the council of hyrule. Your sentence is death."_

_Ganondorf's face might have been made of stone for the expression that he showed._

_A voice spoke up from the back of the room "And do I not get a say in my own apprentice's trial?!"_

_Ganondorf turned around to find Sir Giffard standing at the entrance to the court room. The judges were clearly surprised._

_"Sir Giffard! Well it was an open and close case sir, we didn't think we needed to bring you to the shame of the matter and-"_

_"You are giving my apprentice a death sentence. A death sentience which I have no doubt is falsely accused. You suggest that I am so blind as to take a killer as my apprentice?"_

_"S-sir we m-meant no offence."_

_"No offence? NO OFFENSE?! You tarnish my students honor beyond recovery, and in extension my own! Well perhaps the hyrulian elite will be one knight short from now on, for I am not going to stand for this!" _

_The judges began to mutter wildly among themselves and finally one of them came forward once again._

"…_G-ganondorf Dragmire shall be stripped of rank and sent back to the desert, but otherwise cleared of all charges."_

_ Ganondorf should have felt relief, but all he felt was despair. Chariton, his best friend, who he had helped overcome fear. Chariton, his brother gerudo, who had fought through the test right beside him, despite the fact no one but the gerudo knew it. Chariton, had betrayed him utterly._

_Sir Giffard had saved his life and Ganondorf returned to the desert. But his master paid for it dearly. Three weeks later a messenger was sent to the gerudo fortress. Sir Giffard had been found dead and it was a gerudo dagger in his chest. The messenger brought the dagger, still soaked in blood, and threw it at Ganondorf's feet. It was an unspoken accusation that a gerudo had repaid Giffard's mercy with crime. And Ganondorf didn't think they were too far off, even though no hylian knew the gerudo walked among them as a knight: for the dagger had the carving of an emerald eyed wolf set in its handle._

Midna entered the hotel they had chosen, the only hotel in the town. It wasn't too bad, it had good beds, food, and service, but the entire first floor was also a bar. Midna gritted her teeth as the usual set of whistles and jeers arose from the drunken populace, she had considered blasting them with a little twili magic more than once, but the good thing about drunks was that they were good sources of information after the ale had loosened their tongues. So after the first few times of getting use to this greeting, the only trouble Midna had with it was stopping Link from flying at them.

Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf were already sitting at a table; apparently she was the last one to get back. She joined them quickly, noticing as she did that Link's teeth were gritted in and he was glaring at the men that had whistled at her.

She gave a weary smile at her three companions "Well I didn't have any luck, did any of you find out a clue to where Muerte might roost?"

They all shook their heads and Midna sighed, she looked around the room, bored. There was a bar covering the opposite wall, the stairs to the rooms were on the right corner of same wall as the door, the left wall had a stage with a piano on the far right corner and the space in between was filled with tables. There was some yelling coming from the bar and in her boredom Midna started to listen.

"Wada ya mean (hic!) that there ain't no entartanment?! I wants to see shome entartanment and youze gonna (hic!) show me shome!"

The girl serving at the bar sighed "I'm sorry sir but the group that was entertaining tonight hasn't arrived, they probably had road troubles."

While the man yelling was to drunk to cause much trouble some of the more sober customers that had apparently come just to see the show were grumbling as well.

The girl started to look fed up "Well perhaps one of you should get up on the stage and entertain yourselves for once you useless slobs!"

They were all silent, some of them were indignant, while a few were musing. The man that had been yelling was silent because he had passed out. Suddenly one of the more sober men spoke.

"What about the travelers from over the mountain? You three must know some outlandish entertainment!"

There was a chorus of delighted agreement from the rest of the men. Zelda blushed, Ganondorf looked amused, Midna looked a little miffed, and Link looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Midna was the first to speak "I know how to dance, I'm sure you do too Zelda, Link I'm sure you could sing if you gave it a try."

Link blushed and looked at Midna with disbelief.

Midna shrugged "Well you can howl- I mean _hum_, a perfectly good tune."

Zelda nodded slowly "I suppose that could work."

Link sank down in his chair "T-there's no music."

Ganondorf smirked "I could provide music if that's the only thing stopping you."

"Y-you don't need to trouble yourself with-"

"What and miss out on seeing the almost-mute boy sing?! Not on your life!"

He walked up to the stage before Link could complain and sat down at the piano.

"What songs do you know?"

Link looked like he wanted to turn invisible but he muttered something under his breath.

Ganondorf grinned "Sorry, didn't catch that."

"Epona's song."

Midna smiled at him "That's the love song both you and the ancient hero horse's names are from right?"

Link nodded as he and the two girls joined Ganondorf on the stage. The men cheered encouragement as they got ready. Then, as while Ganondorf played and the princesses danced, Link began to sing, his voice occasionally cracked with from being nervous, but he sung it quite well.

Epona, Epona, growing up with me

When I'm with you, I can't be lonely

Therefore, Epona, you are here

Growing up safely

I started to think it was cold

At the dawn of that day

The moon had sunk, and with the sun

You were born

Epona, Epona, growing up with me

When I'm with you, I can't be sad

Therefore, Epona, you are here

Listening to my song

I started to think it was cold

Right at that time

For your sake

I'm making this song

Hmm... Hmm...

When I'm with you, I can't be sad

Hmm... Hmm...

Never ever forget this song

This song...

Note: these are the actual translated lyrics of Epona's song (Epona No Uta), I think there's a few videos of it on youtube if you want to hear it.


	14. Chapter 14

Sorry about submitting the last chapter wrong, I think clicked the wrong chapter or something, it's fixed now.

_Ganondorf entered the spirit temple, it was the first time he had come here since his test. But this time he was looking for someone, two someones in fact. _

_"Twinrova! I know you're here! Come out, I want to talk to you!"_

_Loud cackling echoed around the temple and two blurs of color, one red and one blue, streaked through the far door. Koume and Kotake, or Twinrova as they were sometimes known, were the only existing gerudo sorceresses. Gerudo sorceresses were rare, even rarer than males. It was well known that all sorceresses,, though extended their lives may be, would eventually go insane._

_The two witches slowed to a halt on their brooms. Their eyes showed insanity clearly, their skin had taken on a sickly tint, and had shrunk and wrinkled in their old age. Koume was adorned with blue gems and where her hair would normally be there was a mass of ice. Katake was almost identical, except that her gems were red and instead of ice there was fire. They both laughed manically._

_"It looks like the gerudo king has come for advice Katake!"_

_"It certainly does Koume! What do you think he wants?"_

_Ganondorf couldn't help shrinking back a little in fear, or hide the tremble of his voice "I-I have not come for advice, I wish to learn sorcery."_

_"The king of the gerudo learn sorcery?! What do you think Koume?"_

_"I don't know Katake, according to the other gerudo it would make him go insane!"_

_"But we haven't gone insane have we Koume!"_

_They both cackled and sped around Ganondorf in circles, they obviously didn't realize how insane they had become and that frightened Ganondorf more than anything else._

_"Well Katake, do you think he can stand it?"  
"Good question Koume, not just anyone can master sorcery, they have to be strong!"_

_Ganondorf's determination returned to him "I can learn it. If I don't I will die trying."_

A man entered the pub about halfway through the performance. The man wore boots, pants, a long sleeved shirt with a hood, and gloves. His face was wrapped in bandages and his eyes covered by tinted spectacles. The man never told anyone his name, but he had acquired the nickname Cover. Everyone knew that he must be an outlaw of some sort, so they stayed as far away from him as possible. He approached bar and ordered a pitcher of ice water. He then promptly poured it over the passed out drunk, the most likely person to answer his questions.

"Those are the visitors for over the mountain?"

"Eh? Yeh I thank so. But I thought there were only four of um, I kep seein eight."

"Do you know anything about them?"

"They were asking about somthin called Mear-tee. Or maybe it was pear tree, I spose they don't have pears over the mountains."

"Muerte?!"

"Ya, dat waz it! Funny I though it was pear tree, I could go for a pear right about…" The drunk fainted before he finished his sentence.

At that moment Link finished singing, he sped off the stage as fast as he could. The other three followed.

Cover made his way over to them quickly and sat down in the fifth chair "Is it true you're looking for Muerte?"

They all looked up in surprise, Ganondorf was the one to answer "Yes. Do you know something?"

Cover nodded, getting straight to the point "Information needs payment though."

Zelda raised an eyebrow "Usually that statement isn't so blandly stated."

"I am not a usual case."

Zelda rummaged in her purse before sliding five gold coins across the table.

Cover bit the coins to make sure they were real, then pocketed them "Muerte lives in underground cave five miles north of here, but you won't be able to defeat him as you are. I don't know what you'll actually need, but I do know there's something."

Midna rolled her eyes "Isn't there always? I'd say thanks for the info, but I think Zelda's coins already did that."

Cover smiled, though they couldn't see it "Good luck."

Then he left.


	15. Chapter 15

_Ganondorf sat in the spirit temple, concentrating on his open palm. Twinrova wouldn't come that day, but he liked to practice here. He suddenly felt the surge of magic and he fought to control it. It was a bit like pouring salad dressing out of a bottle: it seemed as if nothing was happening so you tipped it a bit more, and then suddenly it was rushing out too fast and you ended up with more than you wanted. Ganondorf turned his palm away from him as the overflowing magic burst from it, hitting the wall instead of his face. He shivered, knowing that he had just almost taken his own head off. He turned his palm around and began to concentrate again. As he looked for the magic in the void of himself, it seemed as if there were other things there, things that reached for him and chased him. He tried to ignore them as he snatched up the magic and pulled it toward him, he did it slowly this time, resisting the urge to yank at it and get away from the things as quickly as possible._

_"What are you doing?"_

_Ganondorf gave a yelp of surprise and accidentally yanked the magic again, he turned his palm away and the blast speckled the spirit temple's wall with yet another scorch mark. He spun around to find Nabooru staring at him for the entrance._

_"Don't DO that!"_

_Nabooru was staring at the wall, the scorch marks covered most of the stones "So you really are becoming a sorcerer?"_

_Ganondorf nodded "I can't even do the simplest spells yet though, I keep over shooting and almost incinerating myself."_

_Nabooru frowned and sat down beside him "Ganondorf, you're planning on getting revenge aren't you?"_

_"It's not just revenge. If we don't do something about the knights then they'll eventually wipe us out. The gerudo need freedom."_

_"We both know that's not why you're doing it."_

_Ganondorf turned to face her "So what?! He betrayed us Nabooru, he was accepted into our ranks and he betrayed us! And why does it matter why I'm doing it? It will give the gerudo freedom either way!"_

_"Ganondorf, I just don't want you to ruin your life for this. I mean, you've taken up sorcery! Look at what that did to Koume and Kotake!"_

_"I'm stronger then them."_

_"No you aren't."_

_"Just leave me alone Nabooru."_

Ganondorf wandered through the streets, he couldn't sleep so he had decided to look for information. If this place was anything like Hyrule, then all the best information could be found from the "rats" that roamed at night. It was raining, something that he had always found a prize. Rain was a wonderful thing in the desert and they always use to have a festival when the rain came. Even when he had lived in Castle City, where rain was not longer rare, it felt like riches to him.

He walked past the streets and into the fields surrounding the town, barely noticing where he was going. His foot suddenly hit a moss covered stone and laughter burst out in the air. Ganondorf jumped back and drew his sword, expecting rock creature. Instead the laughter died out and a voice squealed into the air.

"BONG, BONG! The current time is 12:11"

Ganondorf lowered his sword, surprised. He made his way toward the stone, sheathing the sword as he did. He knelt down next to the stone and scraped the moss off. Slowly, a sheikian symbol appeared. Ganondorf grinned, he wasn't sure how it had gotten here, but this might be just what they needed.

Midna looked confused "A what stone?"

"Gossip stone."

Midna looked at Link "You ever heard of these things?"

Link shook his head, but Zelda spoke up "I've heard of them, they supposedly know all sorts of information. I heard they were all destroyed."

Ganondorf shrugged "Well who knows, maybe the sheikians just moved them here."

"Maybe, but unless we have the mask of truth they just function as a fancy timepiece."

Ganondorf shrugged "So we need to find the mask."

Midna rolled her eyes "Unless this mask comes when you call it, I don't think it's going to be so easy."

Link suddenly spoke up "I think Skull Kid might have it."

Zelda looked confused "Who?"

Midna groaned "A twerp that runs around the sacred grove torturing visitors." She gave an overdramatic sigh "All right, I'll create a portal so we can get there and back quickly. I say that Link, since he seems to be on an almost-friendly-basis with him, and I go and ask the little twerp while you two keep looking for clues here."

Ganondorf smiled "No complaint from me, your opinion of Skull Kid seems to be the only thing I agree with."

Midna smiled wryly "Great, now figure out a way to be the one that warps Link there instead of me."

Midna and Link left the hotel, as soon as the door stopped swinging Zelda turned to Ganondorf "You do know a way to borrow her warp powers."

Ganondorf gave her his best innocent look, which, on his face, ended up looking more deviously gleeful than anything else "Now why would you think that?"

"If I recall correctly, you borrowed a few of Zant's powers."

Ganondorf grinned "Well, then perhaps you _don't_ recall correctly, besides, I'm not going to volunteer to be around the twerp."

There was a strange jumble of sound from outside that came with portals appearing. All the men in the bar rushed to the window to see what happened. There were a few mutters of "witchcraft" and one of the men spoke up in a somber tone.

"There's around men. Keep on you're watch."

Zelda and Ganondorf exchanged shocked looks at the horrified reaction of the men at sorcery. Apparently magic was forbidden here,

Ganondorf leaned toward Zelda, speaking in a worried whisper "Well that's going to make our mission about a million times harder."


	16. Chapter 16

_Ganondorf rode through the burning streets of Castle City, he had been practicing sorcery for a long time now, and his skin looked puss-like with the tint of gerudo magic. The creatures of his own void tortured him even when he was awake now._

_But despite, or perhaps even because, the magic had dented his sanity, the attack on Castle City was going well, even without the triforce. He was looking for one knight in particular: Chariton. Finally, he spotted the traitor. Chariton was battling a moblin, and winning in fact. He had improved quite a bit since Ganondorf had last seen him. Ganondorf dismounted just as the moblin was felled. Chariton looked up as Ganondorf approached, the smoke blocking his view._

"_Who's there?! Show you're self!" _

_Ganondorf obliged, stepping out of the smoke, his face contorted into insanity "It's been a long time Chariton."_

"_Ganondorf."_

"_The one and only."_

_Chariton's expression was unreadable "You must have been quite happy to hear the order to attack this place."_

_Ganondorf raised his eyebrows "Heard? Ah yes, I never did get around to telling you. I don't hear orders, I give them."_

_You could almost see the wheels turning in Chariton's head, and his expression turned to shock "You- you're the gerudo ruler?!"_

"_Genius Chariton, you should be a scholar."_

"_But- Ganondorf did you do all this just for revenge?!"_

_Ganondorf sneered "Revenge? No Chariton, not quite. Revenge would be stabbing you in the back during the night. At first I thought I might try and realize Sir Giffard's dream, to bring peace between the gerudo and hylian." Ganondorf smiled, and it was not a pleasant smile "You know, I've become a sorcerer Chariton. My people say a gerudo sorcerer is doomed to insanity, but I think that everyone but the gerudo sorcerers are doomed to insanity. Now I realize that the only way hylians will no longer trouble the gerudo is if the hylians are all dead."_

_Chariton's expression turned to horror "By the goddeses and sages Ganondorf, what have you become?"_

_The maniac expression dropped from Ganondorf's face "Chariton, when you passed the test with me you became a gerudo. Do you know the sentence for a gerudo traitor?"_

"_Exicution?"_

_But Ganondorf shook his head "Not exactally."_

_Ganondorf needed no weapons, only his sorcery, but he carried two very small weapons anyway. They were two daggers, one carved with a boar and the other with a wolf. He drew them now, and tossed the wolf to Chariton. Chariton caught it._

"_A traitor must battle for their life against another gerudo. If the traitor wins then they shall only be banished. If they lose… they will not be around to have further sentence."_

_Chariton had his dagger in one hand, his sword in the other. In one fluid movement he dropped the sword and assumed ready position, once Ganondorf might have seen the significance in that._

_Without another word, the two flew at eachother, the gems on their daggers shining in the firelight of the burning streets._

Midna and Link materialized in the inner sacred grove. Link immediately headed for the arena they had battled Skull Kid in. He began to whistle as he did, the same song that Skull Kid played all the time. Soon the sound of a trumpet joined him and Skull Kid appeared on a nearby wall.

"Hee hee! Hello doggie boy! Imp girl is with you again huh? Where's the pig man?"

Link just smiled as the "imp girl" came forward to talk "Link said you have the mask of truth? Could we use it?"

Skull kid shifted from one foot to the other, thinking "Weeeell… it's not really mine. I just borrow it every now and again."

"Could you bring us to the person you borrow it from so we can ask for it then?"

"Hmmm… well I suppose since you already know her she won't mind."

"Already know who?

The sky suddenly turned dark as what seemed to be eons of clouds covered the sun. Skull Kid let out a high pitched, almost maniac, giggle and ran off before they could say anything else. His trumpet sounded from ahead, and Link and Midna realized that this was going to turn into another deadly game of tag.

A section of wall disappeared and the two ran through it, Skull Kid's lantern light echoing ahead, soon they heard the far of squawking of the trumpet and headed toward it.

Suddenly Link stopped in his tracks "Midna… the song is different. He isn't calling the puppets."

Midna stopped as well to listen. The song went through it's normal phrase, but instead of having the long note that called the wooden golems, he just started over.

Midna smiled nervously "You don't think he's just being nice do you?"

Link didn't even respond to that one, if someone had you that gorons would learn to swim or Skull Kid would just _give_ someone what they wanted, you should bet on the gorons. Suddenly the music stopped all together, and the passage behind them sealed to solid stone again. Midna and Link moved so they were back to back. Link drew his master sword; the blade glowing slightly in the dark with the light of the two sols, and Midna readied her magic. The stone around them slowly began to turn to darkness. Link looked down at his feet and quickly looked away again, looking a little sickly. It was quite disturbing to see that you weren't standing on anything.

Midna glared into the darkness "Do you really think you can scare a twili with darkness?!"

"Hee hee! No, this is just the area in-between! I'll see you on the other side!"


	17. Chapter 17

_Chariton fell to the ground, his dagger flying out of his hand, and Ganondorf put his own dagger to Chariton's heart._

"_Are you going to kill me now Ganondorf?"_

"_I think that would be obvious traitor. An attempt at my life is bad enough, but I don't hold grudges on my account. Killing Master Giffard just because he saved me though, that's something I won't forgive easily."_

"_I never killed him Ganondorf."_

"_Don't lie, you're dagger is still encrusted with his blood!"_

_Chariton stared at Ganondorf, but there was no fear in his eyes "I never killed him. I'm not really sure why I went along with Armel's plan to kill _you_ Ganondorf. I never wanted to kill you, but I'm not sorry. Armel was my brother."_

_Ganondorf snarled "You're brother?! Let my sisters kill me if I ever turn to such evil as Armel did! And mission of the coming of age may not mean much to you, but-" He plunged the dagger into Chariton's chest "to me at least, you were my brother too."_

_Chariton eyes went wide and clouded over, and he was dead, not even a scream passed his lips. Ganondorf left the dagger where it was and the maniacal look returned to his face. Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but his skin seemed to turn even sicklier as he let go of the dagger's hilt._

_Though he didn't notice her, Nabooru stood in the shadows of a nearby building. She had seen the entire battle, and their words were branded into her mind. She closed her eyes, but tears leaked out from under the lids. Not for Chariton, but for the Ganondorf she had once known. The Ganondorf that had been killed by the gerudo sorcerer._

_"You wish to be destroyed if you sink to Armel's level? Very well brother, I will obey you're wish. You already have far surpassed him."_

The shadows began to wrap around Link, and as they did Midna faded. She didn't seem to notice, even though Link called out her name. And then Link was somewhere else.

It was a lake covered with fog, a single tree in the center. He made his way towards the tree, but there was nothing there. He ran his hand over the tree's bark, and turned around.

There was someone walking towards him through the fog, but Link couldn't tell who. He shifted his weight and drew the master sword, just in case it was an enemy. Then the figure emerged from the fog, and both their faces turned to shock.

The other boy looked so much like Link that they could have been brothers. Link might have thought he had come across his brother, except that the similarities didn't just end at their features. The other boy was dressed in the same outfit, and even had the shield. Both of their faces turned serious at the exact same time, and they raised their swords. That was when Link noticed the impossible of the other boy: he had the mastersword as well.

There was only one mastersword, so the other boy couldn't be real. He was just a warped reflection. They both attacked at the same time, their meeting with a clang.

The other boy mirrored his every movement, his every blow. Link soon realized that he couldn't win in a sword battle, and his hand went for his bow and arrows…

…bow and arrows that weren't there. Link realized, too late, that Midna was carrying his extra weapons with her twili magic. It was the only way he could bring everything, but it was pretty useless when she wasn't around. Link looked back up to the boy quickly, just in time to catch a little blue light fly away from the other boy's head. Whatever it was, they had been conversing. The boy took a page out of the book Link had been trying to use, and pulled out a different weapon. It was a giant hammer, and he rushed Link with it. Link jumped back and the hammer hit the ground where he had just been standing. It sent shockwaves through the ground, and Link fell down as soon as he his feet touched the ground. The boy ran at Link again, and this time the hammer connected. The metal of the hammer slammed into Link, and he suddenly felt the floor below him dissolve.

Link raised his arm to try and grab something as he fell, but there was nothing to grab. Then he noticed something strange about his arm: it was transparent and black. He examined himself, forgetting he was falling, and found that he looked exactly like a see-through version of an interloper. Even as he noticed this, the darkness around him faded, and he was standing where he was before, Midna at his back.

The darkness around both of them dissolved, and they found themselves in a new grove, instead of ruins, this one had two stumps in the center. Skull Kid was dancing on the higher one, playing his little tune on a flute.

He stopped "Hee hee! Welcome to the lost woods!"

There was a sigh from behind them "Skull Kid, did you have to give them so much trouble?"

"Yes. Oh and I caused trouble for mr. not-a-kokiri-after-all too!"

"You're an idiot Skull Kid, and that's not a compliment."

Link and Midna turned around, and found themselves face-to-face with a green haired ten year old girl.

She smiled at them "Hello again you two!"

Midna blinked "Again? I think I'd remember you."


	18. Chapter 18

Link and Midna watched Saria, who was sitting on a stump opposite them chewing deku sap. Saria stopped chewing and blew as hard as she could. A bubble, similar to one you could get from bubble gum, inflated from her mouth. It grew to roughly the size of an apple before popping. Saria pulled the deflated babble back into her mouth and started chewing again.

Saria held out a hand filled with deku seeds, each swelling with sap "Want some?"

Midna sighed "We really don't have time to- Link!"

Link put the deku seed back into Saria's hand immediately, turning crimson as he did.

Saria giggled "Oh come on, let him take one."

Link looked at Midna nervously, she just sighed and rolled her eyes "You spent way too much time around the children in you're village."

Link grinned gleefully, taking this as approval, and popped a deku seed into his mouth.

Saria giggled again "Don't worry, Mido's already bringing the mask. I just didn't want you wandering around, this place is called the _lost_ woods for a reason you know."

Link tried to blow a bubble like Saria had but it ended up popping before it even reached the size of a grape. He looked so depressed by it that Midna had to laugh.

She held out her hand "alright, I'll try one."

Saria handed her a deku seed just as another green-dressed boy sprinted into the area. Saria hopped of the stump and walked over to him, looking worried.

"You didn't have to half kill yourself getting here Mido."

The boy panted "You pant said as quick as I could."

He held up a silvery mask, it was a similar shape to a shield and had red and yellow markings, similar to the ones on the gossip stone. Mido peered around the mask at Link "Is that the descendent fairy-less boy?"

Saria bopped Mido on the head and Mido yelped "I told you not to call him fairy-less boy!"

"Sorry, it's habi… habito.. habitoel"

"Habitual?"

"Yeah, ha-bi-shoo-al."

Saria took the mask from Mido "Well thanks for bringing it."

"No problem… wow, the pretty lady can blow big bubbles."

"Wha?"

Saria turned around to find that Midna had blown a bubble roughly the size of a beach ball, and it was still growing. Link was practically turning green with envy while he tried to get his past grape size. Saria giggled and walked over to them, the mask of truth under her arm. Link turned to face her, happy for a reason to stop embaressing himself.

Saria plopped the mask directly onto his face "There, just wear it like that and the gossip stones will never shut up. They may be shut-mouthed to people, but if they think you're one of them then they'll chat until you're ears fall off." She grinned "hopefully you can stay awake long enough for them to get to information that will actually be useful."

Ganondorf paced across the pub floor. It was Zelda's shift to search for clues; they had decided that only one of them would look at a time, so the other could get some rest. More accurately, Zelda had decided. Ganondorf had protested to no end that she should just take breaks, since he didn't need any. He still wasn't quite sure how she had ended up winning the argument.

One of the pub's patrons sighed "If you don't stop pacing you'll wear the floor boards away! Come over and have a drink."

Ganondorf glanced out of the corner of his eye. The man that had called him was Cover. Ganondorf shook his head "I don't drink, it dulls your senses."

Cover rolled his eyes, not that Ganondorf could see it "Then come over and sit down, I'll buy you a drink anyway."

Ganondorf hesitated, and then grudgingly walked over "I won't drink it."

"Sure you won't. Hey, whats-you're-name, Martha, get the man a pint."

He put a few coins on the table and the serving girl, apparently Martha, obligingly filled a pint sized glass and slid it over to Ganondorf before pocketing the coins.

Ganondorf stared at the mug of ale as if he was waiting for it to attack him.

Cover sighed "Oh go on, one sip."

"No."

"You scared to drink it?"

"Yes."

Several of the men down the bar stifled snorts of laughter and Ganondorf glared that them, eyes shooting daggers "Perhaps one of you would like to try fighting me when you're drunk and I'm sober. He smirked "Unless you're to _scared_."

Most of the men suddenly found their boots very interesting. However, one very drunk man, the same drunk as the night the four hylians had preformed, didn't notice. He started giggling "Scarred o' ale heh heh! E's a right pansy!"

Cover laughed nervously "When I see how that drunkard acts, it kinda makes me agree with you Ganondorf. Perhaps we should all lay off the ale for a while."

There was a chorus of nervous agreement from all but the drunkard, who began giggling again "Yo' all pansys den! hic Just like dat weirdo mountainie guy. hic Ya'know my gramps told me a story about the last time a hyruan came over the mountains. He wain't no pansy! He gots almost as drunk as I is."

Ganondorf, instead of getting angry, just looked disgusted at the drunk. He shook his head and pushed the pint of ale as far away from him as he could.

The drunk wouldn't shut up "Yeah, this guy got exiled for killin some murderous thieves called gerudo. Ain't no justice I tell ya."

Ganondorf eyes narrowed "Be quiet."

"He was da leader of de expedition. Ya dis guy told gramps al' about de battle. I tell it to ya!"

The other men make desperate motions at the drunk to stop, but the idiot didn't notice "So da thieves live in the desert, and dey only have one water place. Dis guy puts poison in the water, an soon all the rats are either sick or dead."

Ganondorf's mouth was set in a snarl and his nails were digging into the wood of the bar, his knuckles were white and the wood began to break off. Most of the men began to slowly edge out of Ganondorf's way.

"Course, there's still a few left alive, so he an 'is men go in ta 'ill 'um. The gerudo blood was flying behind him like a crimson banner. Oh! An he took a trophy too! E' gave it to gramps, who gave it ta me! Now where…" he started rummaging in his coat.

Ganondorf was shaking with rage at this time, his eyes started to glow a little with the triforce's power.

"Here it is!" The man pulled a gerudo's pony-tail out of his coat, stained with blood. "The gerudo vermin's hair!"

The triforce burst into light, and the power ran down Ganondorf's hand and into the bar, making the bar literally explode into a thousand flaming pieces. All the men, even the drunk, screamed and leapt back from Ganondorf. Ganondorf's eyes glowed bright gold as he advanced on the drunkard. The man scrambled backward, but the alcohol was taking it's toll, and he could barely stand up.

Ganondorf grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, as he did the triforce sent out another surge, responding to his anger, and boar tusks began to emerge from his mouth. Ganondorf made a sound somewhere between a snarl and a roar, he couldn't speak with the tusks anymore. Somehow, the drunk got the gist of it.


	19. Chapter 19

Zelda was talking to a shopkeeper in the main square when the hotel exploded. The woman she was talking to shrieked, but Zelda just stared as flaming bits of what was once a building rained onto them. Then she began to run. She was only a couple blocks away, so she arrived just as Ganondorf tossed the carcass of the drunk away. The people that had been the bar, minus the drunk, were noticeably scorched, but alive. The ones that weren't frozen in shock were now either running away as fast as they could, or trying to get the others to unfreeze from shock and run as well.

The gerudo was quite a fearsome sight by now, he was already mostly Ganon. His tusks had grown in, as well as his mane, his claws, and most of his fur, he was also noticeably larger. Zelda froze in her tracks. In a tiny part of her mind, she hoped that since he had already killed someone, he would calm down now. But Ganon already had half a bullbo's mind, and once a bullbo started stampeding, it took them quite a while to stop.

Ganon let out another burst of power, reducing any remaining bits of wood near him to ash. Zelda snapped into action, using her magic laced with the power of the triforce to cast a barrier around Ganon. The burst of flame crashed into it just short of one of the men from the bar. This enraged Ganon even more, and he sent wave after wave of flame against the shield. Zelda felt her power draining with each wave; her triforce wasn't made for raw power, even raw power made into a shield.

In desperation, Zelda screamed at the gerudo "Ganondorf! If you don't stop you'll incinerate everyone in a thousand miles! If you don't want to die, then you still need me for the triforce seal!"

Ganon responded with another wave. Suddenly Zelda felt a rush of power in the shield, she glanced behind her to find that Link and Midna had returned, and were adding their power. But even with all three of them, Ganon was still stronger.

Midna winced as another wave hit the barrier "I wish I had the fused shadows right now."

Zelda took a step towards Ganon "You need the other two pieces of the triforce Ganon! Killing us is committing suicide!"

Ganon blasted another wave and the shield broke. Zelda heard screams in the background, as if they were miles away. She was frozen in fear, he had transformed entirely now, and as the barrier broke he charged.

Zelda heard Midna and Link scream, but it sounded miles away. All she could hear was the pounding of Ganon's feet as he charged at her.

Zelda closed her eyes and shrieked, barely realizing that the sound came from her "GANONDORF!"

If Zelda had opened her eyes, she would have seen the gold light of the triforce in Ganon's eyes fade, and see him try frantically to stop. She would have seen him slide across the remaining floor between them despite his efforts. She would have seen him begin to shrink as he turned back into Ganondorf, but not fast enough. As it was, she only felt a crushing weight slam into her, and blacked out.

Zelda woke up slowly, her first though was how ironically similar this was to Ganondorf's predicament after the twilight mirror was repaired. Her second thought was that she should be dead.

"So you're awake?"

Zelda's eyes snapped open and she sat up. She was rewarded by almost blacking out again, but she managed to stay awake. Everything was blurry at first, but things slowly came into focus. She was in a tent of some sort, lying on the ground. Ganondorf was sitting on the other side of the tent, staring at her.

"Either you're awake or you're having a strange version of sleep walking. Which is it?"

Zelda didn't answer, she had just realized she was in a cotton nightgown "Who changed my clothes?! It better not have been you!"

Ganondorf turned beet red "Why the heck would make you think I would do that?! Midna did it!"

"You didn't peek did you?"  
"I wouldn't peek! She used twili magic, the clothes exchanged spontaneously."

Zelda ignored the question "Wait a minute… if you know Midna used twili magic… you _were _in the same tent when I changed!"

"Why the heck are you being so bent on accusing me?! Link is a male too, and for you're information he was the one that told me! I was busy keeping watch."

Zelda's eyes widened "Link- was…LINK!!!!!!!"

Midna stuck her head in the tent a few minutes later "Link is on watch duty (though he looked like he wanted to run away as fast as he could when you screamed for him) is there anything I can do?"

Zelda nodded fiercely "Tell him that if he ever can even see the _house_ I'm changing in again, I will learn a teleportation spell and use it to personally drop him in the biggest dung pit I can find, spontaneous twili magic or not!"

Midna grinned "I _told_ him you'd have a problem with it! I'll be happy to relay the message!"

Ganondorf's ears were still ringing when Midna withdrew her head "You. Have very big lungs."

"Thank you."


	20. Chapter 20

The town was in an uproar. Before the day was out, everyone knew that the visitors from over the mountain were _magic _users. The mayor had called a town meeting in the square, and everyone had an opinion.

"Burn them!"

"We should get a priest to send them back where they came from."

"Burn them!"

"The children need to go into hiding, witches and warlocks eat children."

"BURN THEM!"

The mayor sighed and rubbed his forehead. He was beginning to develop a major headache "Will everyone please quiet down?!"

No one would stop talking. The mayor sighed and rubbed his forehead again, first the hotel had exploded, then someone had stolen the dinner from his table, and now no one would listen to him. He shouted for silence again, and again, and _again_. When everyone finally shut up, they found that the mayor had lost his voice. Before the talking could start up again, Cover spoke up from the back of the audience.

"Has anyone thought that maybe they're a just _little_ stronger than we can handle? Just one of them incinerated the hotel in less than a minute, and I noticed he wasn't even limping when they left."

For a moment, there was dead silence, and then the clamor arose again.

"It's an invasion, they'll take over!"

"Call for renforcements!"

"Alert the other villages."

"Tell the King!"

"SIC THE ARMY ON THEM!"

The mayor was making several frantic attempts at speaking, but all that came out was a few raspy squeaks, and no one paid any attention. Cover groaned; this had not been the reaction he was looking for. He headed towards the edge of town, muttering to himself.

"Help the royal family they say! That's what we do they say! All you need to do is give them a few hints and they'll take care of Muerte! Well no one put the syco villagers into the equation now did they?! I wonder if I can resign from being sheikah."

Ganondorf shoved the plate of food into Zelda's hands, piled skyscraper-high with strange food. Zelda eyed it warily.

"And you say I have to eat everything."

"Everything. You used a lot of energy healing yourself, even if the triforce did do most of it."

"Do you even know what any of this food is?"

"No."

"How do you know it isn't poisonous?"

"I stole it from the mayor's house. I doubt he was planning to poison himself."

Zelda glared at Ganondorf "You _stole _it?"

"I stole the tent too. No one saw me."

"That's _not_ the point."

"He doesn't need the tent, and he won't starve. The man has enough food in his pantry to lat twenty years, besides, he could lose some weight."

Zelda couldn't help but smile, though she tried to hide it behind a mouthful of food.

Ganondorf grinned back. It might have just been Zelda's imagination, but it seemed as if his smiled was a little less demonic now

"So the town is hates us now. Some, the few that didn't bother with planning, are even after us with torches and pitchforks." He paused "why do they always use torches and pitchforks anyway? Kitchen knives and axes would be much more effective." He shrugged "We're in a forest near the lake Cover told us about, but we don't know how to get to the gossip stone."

Zelda bit into a red fruit as she began to plan, her triforce of wisdom helping her along "Well… I know that Midna has hidden as Link's shadow on many occasions. If she left at nightfall then a shadow with no owner would be hardly noticeable. She could take the mask of truth to the gossip stone… but she'd need to materialize to speak to the gossip stone, and that would leave her vulnerable. There's a good chance that no one would notice her though..."

Ganondorf shook his head "Gossip stones are amazingly loud. The minute it started talking, people would come running."

Zelda nodded "We'll need a distraction. Perhaps one of us could go along. No, they'd notice us before we even got close to the village."

"What if Link transformed ahead of time? Or Midna could use one of those illusions to makes her look like someone else?"

"The patterns on Link's head give him away as unnatural, and a talking stone will be seen as strange no matter who it's talking too."

There was suddenly a clamor from outside and both of them rushed out, Zelda making sure to put the plate carefully in the corner before running out.

Link had apparently caught an intruder; he and Midna wer currently trying to keep Cover pinned to the ground. Cover was trying to speak through the grass.

"Let me up! I'm here to help for Nayru's sake!"

Midna grinned up at Zelda and Ganondorf "I'm pretty sure he's telling the truth, but I'm having so much fun making him eat grass that I decided to wait and see if _you _thought he was telling the truth."

Zelda smiled "I think you should let him up."

Link and Midna both moved back and Cover got up, spitting out a mouthful of said grass as he did "I knew I shouldn't have let you two catch me!"

Midna snorted "_Let_ us catch you?!"

"Yes _let_ you catch me! I could have stayed out of you're reach quite easily."

Midna rolled her eyes but remained quiet.

Cover gave her a dirty look and turned to Zelda and Ganondorf "I don't really know what I can do to help, but I know how dangerous Muerte is, and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do."

Zelda thought for a moment and then smiled "What would you think of helping with a little distraction?"


	21. Chapter 21

Cover tried to act natural as he walked back into town, but he couldn't help glancing at his shadow every now and then, trying to see a trace of Midna in it. It was barely visible in the dusk, but looked just like a normal shadow, until Midna moved, then his shadow seemed to move of its own accord. Cover always jumped a little when that happened.

_"What is she? I've never heard of a hyrulian that can do this kind of magic."_

Suddenly his shadow stretched out and a piece detached, the rest snapped back into place, once again only a shadow. The detached piece, Midna, sped off towards the stone. Cover gave another shiver for good measure and then headed towards the opposite side of the area to start the distraction.

It was a simple enough plan. Cover would start causing as much trouble as he could, however he could, while Midna spoke to the gossip stone. The only problem, one that only Zelda and Cover saw, was that Cover would likely never be able to return to the village.

Cover sighed as he reached the other side of town, ironically it was the burn hotel. He gave the town one last look and then dropped a bug-bomb Link had given him to the ground. It immediately ran into a nearby shop, giving off a colossal boom that brought everyone to their windows.

Midna slid along the ground, trying to keep to the patches of real shadows as much as she could. There was a boom from the other side of the village and Midna grinned. Bomb bugs were expensive, but they were worth it.

Midna reached the stone and glanced around to make sure no one was watching. Then she materialized. She made a gesture with her hand and the Mask of Truth condensed out of shadow onto her face. It felt remarkably like the time she had worn Link's shield on her head, the only difference was that she could see with the mask.

The Gossip stone spotted her and gave a little squeal of delight "Someone to talk to! Oh hurray! You have _no_ idea how boring it gets here. The villagers are all scared of me because they think magic is evil, so no one comes around here, except for that gerudo man. He hit me! I suppose it wasn't on purpose. I haven't seen a gerudo in _forever_, and the first one that shows up is one of the men! Imagine that!"

Midna suppressed an urge to clap her hands over her ears or just take off the mask so the incessant babbling would stop.

"I suppose the gerudo is here because Muerte is waking up. Did you know it lives under the lake? They say that there's only one thing that can defeat it."

Midna perked up, this was what she wanted to know!

"But those villagers ignore every sign of danger! I mean really, constant earthquakes can only be attributed to bad luck so many times right?"

Midna suppressed a groan as the stone once again veered away from the topic she wanted. Cover only had ten bomb bugs; the distraction couldn't go on forever.

Ganondorf was pacing again. He had already finished dinner, but Zelda and Link were still eating and his pacing was beginning to wear on their nerves.

Zelda sighed "Ganondorf, would you please stop? I think even the biggest idiots in existence will notice if you wear a ditch into the ground."

Ganondorf obligingly stopped and leaned on a tree, he began tapping his fingers on the bark instead and Link groaned.

Ganondorf glared at him "I don't like doing nothing." He turned to Zelda "Isn't there something I could do? I know that we're suppose to stay quiet so the villagers won't find us, but I can take care of ten of thise weaklings in my sleep!"

Zelda shook her head sternly "No. Just get some rest, it may take some work to get this item."

"I'm not going to just sit around!"

"Get some rest."

"No."

"_Now._"

Ganondorf gritted his teeth and sat down on the ground, purposely keeping his eyes as wide as he could just to prove that he wasn't getting rest. Ganondorf hated taking orders, even though he knew perfectly well that someone wielding the triforce of wisdom would have a very good reason for their orders.

Zelda sighed and close her eyes "All right then, keep watch while we sleep."

Link, taking a hint, followed her example. Ganondorf was seethingly ticked off, whatever he did, it would be following orders. Well he could make sure to totally ignore his surroundings while he didn't sleep, but there was no way he would do that. Soon Zelda had fallen asleep. Ganondorf checked to see if she really was asleep, and then put himself into a meditative state. He would rest, but still be able to keep watch. It was annoying that the best solution was following _both_ Zelda's orders, but as long as she didn't know, he could stand it.

Link was the only one not actually getting any rest. His eyes were closed, but there was no way he could sleep while he knew Midna was still in danger. Ever since He had known Midna, the only time that he knew she was battling without him was when she tried to take on Ganondorf by herself with the fused shadows. And that had _not_ turned out well.

"Oh and there was that time that the villager children came and kicked me! They have no respect I tell you!"

Another explosion went off and Midna jerked her eyes open, trying to keep herself from falling asleep. That was the eighth explosion; she was running out of time.

Finally Link couldn't stand it anymore, he stood up and transformed into a wolf. He bounded out of the clearing at top speed. If Cover's distraction was working, then he wouldn't attract extra attention. If it wasn't… then he was needed.

Ganondorf cracked one eye open as Link left, but he let Link go. Perhaps it was because he knew it was something Link had to do, perhaps it was because he wanted to spite Zelda. Or _perhaps_ it was that he knew Link would either have to harm the villagers, or watch Cover and Midna's danger helplessly.

A devious smile crept across Ganondorf's face _"my allies for now… but never my friends. Midna isn't entirely necessary for this battle."_


	22. Chapter 22

Link raced through the woods, the pounding of his feet and the panting of his breath in perfect rhythm. Something akin to panic was creeping into his heart, he realized for the first time how scared he was that Midna would disappear again. So he ran faster, and the fear was pushed to the edge of his mind as he concentrated on dodging the trunks of the trees and leaping over roots and stones. And then there were no more trees.

Midna caught sight of Link from the corner of her eye and her eyes grew wide behind the mask. She kept her face turned to the gossip stone, hoping that it would get to the information she needed before Link came near her. While she had no facts on the matter, she had a strong suspicion that if someone else came near her the stone would stop talking. While that would be a relief to her ears, she needed the information. Link was coming closer and closer, Midna heard the ninth explosion. And then, miraculously, the stone decided to comply.

"You know that Muerte I mentioned? Well I hear there's only one way to beat it! The object is really quite special, its hidden in the temple under the mountains. All you need to get there is go-"

Suddenly the gossip stone shut up, apparently Link had come to close. Link barreled into Midna and they both went flying. They skidded to a stop almost a yard away from the gossip stone, a trench of dirt left behind them. Link was as happy as could be, but Midna was seeing red.

"You _ruined_ it Link!"

Link's eyes grew wide as Midna pushed him away as hard as she could.

"You were suppose to stay with Ganondorf and Zelda!"

Suddenly the tenth explosion sounded, both of them turned their heads at the same time as Cover came tearing from the city.

"RUN!"

Leaving their argument for another hour, Link and Midna dashed towards the forest, Cover only inches behind them.

The villagers followed, a flood of hatred gushing into the field behind them. They were all armed, either it was with pitchforks and torches, or kitchen knives and axes, both could be fatal.

A pitchfork shot past Cover's face, javelin-like, and landed in the ground in front of his feet, vibrating with the force of the impact. Any lesser being would have slammed directly into it, but Cover spun to the side, looking ridiculously like a ballerina, and grabbed it as he ran on. Midna dissolved into a shadow as she ran, trying to make herself less of a target. Link didn't need any evasion tactics, for a wolf was much faster than humans and he was already far out of throwing range.

And then they were in the forest. Midna was hidden entirely in the shadows of the trees. Cover leapt to the branches, and might as well have been a shadow. As for Link, well the forest is the domain of even the lowliest of wolves, not the humans, and Link was no lowly wolf. The villagers searched in vain for hours, but they returned empty handed.

Ganondorf's eyes shot open at a sound in the forest. He stood up and glanced around, unsheathing his dagger as he did. He didn't need to strain his ears; whatever was making the sound was quite loud. Neither forest animals nor his allies were this clumsy, it had to be a villager.

Ganondorf didn't even consider waiting for it to pass, he was sick of waiting. He shot through the trees and snatched up his prey before it could even scream, pressing the blade of his dagger to its throat. Only then did he examine what he had caught.

It was a child, a little boy about ten years old. Most people would have been shocked that they were threatening the life of a child, and immediately back off. The fact that it was a boy of ten only made Ganondorf consider slitting his throat without question; after all it had been a ten year old boy who defeated his three best monsters.

Perhaps Ganondorf would have killed the child, but at that moment Zelda came behind Ganondorf.

"Let him go Ganondorf."

Ganondorf gritted his teeth but obligingly let the boy go and sheathed his dagger. The boy immediately tried to dash for it and Ganondorf took this as permission to snatch him up again, though he refrained from drawing his dagger again.

The boy let out a yelp, and seeing that Ganondorf no longer held the dagger, began to scream as loud as he could.

Ganondorf snarled and his hand moved to the dagger again. Zelda snatched his wrist and glared at him. Ganondorf glared back, but finally he moved his hand away from the dagger and settled for using his hand to cover the boy's mouth.

Zelda nodded "Thank you. Would you mind bringing him into the camp? I'll see if I can find a spell to erase his memory.

Ganondorf's eyes bulged "Erase his- You mean we're just going to let him go?! By Din, at the very least we could question him!"

"I doubt he would betray his family Ganondorf."

"I wasn't implying we would just ask nicely. There are other ways of getting information."

Zelda spun around and slapped Ganondorf across the face, leaving a long red mark.

"Don't you _ever_ suggest such a thing again Ganondorf! I care how you're use to doing things, I will _never _permit torture on a child."

Ganondorf's face turned expressionless, and his eyes glanced toward the cheek that she had slapped him on, though the mark was far out of his sight. Zelda waited for a moment to see if he would respond and then turned back to the camp. Though she didn't let it show, she was shaking with fear inside. It echoed in her mind all too clearly who she had just slapped _The Great King of Evil, The Dark Lord: Ganondorf._ And Zelda realized that when Ganondorf no longer needed them, she was probably going to die.


	23. Chapter 23

Ganondorf glared at the boy from across the camp. He didn't have any grudge against the boy in particular. The boy was just _there_, a perfect source of information that he couldn't use.

Zelda glanced over at Ganondorf as she inspected the boy for any injuries that Ganondorf might have "accidentally" inflicted. There was a small cut along his throat, but it barely even broke the skin. Apparently Ganondorf had a lot of experience holding daggers to people's throats. The boy barely even noticed Zelda, he was staring towards Ganondorf in pure terror.

"Y-you won't let him kill me will you miss?"

Zelda glanced up at the boy and smiled warmly "Don't worry, I'll protect you. In a few hours you won't even remember this."

The boy turned to Zelda, his eyes wide at a new fear "Y-you're going to cast magic on me?"

Zelda nodded "Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit."

The boy shook his head vigorously and tried to pull away "No! I-I can't have magic on me! Mom and Dad will put me in a cell and everyone will hate me and…"

Zelda held up her hand for him to stop "Slow down. Am I to understand that the other villagers have a way of detecting magic?"

The boy nodded, the fear in his eyes telling what would happen if he was found with a spell on him.

Zelda sighed and rubbed her forehead, the triforce on her hand pulsed slightly as it helped her think of a plan "You'll have to stay with us for now I suppose. When we go back to Hyrule, you can go home."

The boy opened his mouth to protest, but apparently thought better of it and shut his maw tight again.

Ganondorf snapped to attention for a moment and then relaxed "They're back."

As if on cue, Link, Cover, and Midna emerged from the trees. The boy stared at Cover with wide eyes.

Cover glanced up "Egon? When- how… I suppose when and how don't really matter. If you're wondering, I'm here voluntarily."

Zelda interrupted "Midna? Did you find anything out?"

Midna nodded, scowling "It's somewhere under the mountain. _Link_ came before it could say anything _else_, and we ran out of time."

Link hung his head, looking for all like nothing so much as a puppy caught chewing up the furniture.

Zelda sighed "I suppose there's nothing we can really do about it now. We'll have to search the mountains near here and hope that the item isn't to far away."

Egon spoke up, a little braver now that Cover was here "What exactly are you searching for anyway?"

Ganondorf glared at him "Nothing that concerns you boy. Just shut up and try not to be annoying."

Egon paled and nodded silently. Zelda shook her head, sighing. Ganondorf was right in not telling the boy, but she wished he could be a bit kinder about it.

She looked up "Cover? Could you possibly take care of him for now?"

Cover nodded wordlessly, though he was mentally griping about being stuck with the grunt jobs. Ganondorf began to glare. He wasn't aiming it at anyone in particular, but his eyes happened to be resting on Egon when they narrowed. Egon fidgeted nervously as Ganondorf spoke up.

"This is idiotic. The boy is nothing but a dangerous hindrance and possible snitch. My talent is power, but it doesn't take a genius to realize what we should do."

Egon was the only one not glaring at Ganondorf now. Not that Ganondorf cared. He switched his gaze to Zelda.

"You can be angry at me all you want, but you can't say that the triforce isn't telling you the exact same thing. We should kill the boy."

Zelda pulled her hand close to her, as if she could muffle the triforce's words to her mind. The triforce was telling her that the wisest thing would be to kill the boy, but even if she was the guardian of the triforce of wisdom she couldn't lay aside her compassion just because it was the wisest thing to do.

"We are not. Killing. The boy."

Ganondorf's face had been carefully schooled into being expressionless ever since Zelda had slapped him. Now it curled into an expression of distain, one that was comfortably common on Ganondorf's face.

"Very well then _princess_, if you put the priority of extending the life span of one measly boy a few days above saving everyone in existence from Muerte, the there's not much I can do about it now is there?"

Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but Zelda could have sworn that his skin seemed to take on a sickly tinge as he spat out the words.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN!!! Sorry, just had to do that.


	24. Chapter 24

As soon as Zelda entered the tent she dropped to her knees, shaking in fear. Zelda was by no means a weak girl, but a life of palace luxury doesn't prepare you for an alliance with a madman.

Egon entered after her. While she was a _sorceress _she had protected him, so he felt safer with her.

"A-are you okay miss?"

Zelda smiled weakly "I'll be fine. Just a little shaken up is all."

Egon sat down next to her, returning her smile uneasily "Why are you with him if he scares you so much miss? You should kick him out on his sorry rear!"

Zelda laughed "Kick him out on his sorry rear?"

"That's what dad always says he's going to do to me when I misbehave."

"Well… we need him."  
"Why?"

"That's not really something I can tell you Egon."

The boy frowned "How come grown-ups always say that kinda stuff? That's what mom and dad say about magic." His eyes widened and he slapped his hands over his mouth "I didn't mean ta! I didn't mean ta say the M-word I promise!"

Zelda just shook her head and smiled. "I won't tell."

Ganondorf was stomping through the woods. The issue of the boy himself was annoying, but what annoyed Ganondorf more than anything was that he had little choice but to follow the others orders. Ganondorf had spent years pretending to be a loyal servant to the king of the hylians. And the king was a _fool_ and a _weakling_. Ganondorf could have disposed of him in seconds, yet to take over the kingdom he had pretended to be a groveling lapdog. Ganondorf's lip curled at just the thought of it. When he had finally started the attack, he thought he was finished with taking orders, yet here he was again, in the exact same position. He paused. Well not the _exact_ same position, he would at least give Zelda the credit of not being as foolish the king of however any years ago. Ganondorf idly made a mental note to ask how many years had actually passed while he was in the twilight realm.

_"Just kill them now!"_

Ganondorf shivered, the voices were back. That was another thing that he had thought he had been rid of. He had been careful not to use any magic outside of what the triforce gave him, so why were they coming back?

"Shut up Link! Shut up!"

For a moment Ganondorf thought that there was a strange new voice in his head. Then he realized that the muffled shout was coming from the camp. He crept a little closer and strained his ears. Eavesdropping was about the smallest evil he could do, but he would have to be satisfied with the little act of defiance.

Midna and Link were facing eachother in the center of the camp, and Midna's face was _crimson_ with anger.

"Stop giving me excuses! I do _not_ need you to protect me all right!? I am not a damsel in distress I'm the ruler of the Twilight Realm and a full fledged sorceress! So stop acting like I'm still a helpless imp who needs to hide in you're shadow!"

Link flinched back at every word as if they struck him like bullets. He opened his mouth to reply, but Midna just glared at him and he closed it. Midna spun around and stalked off, the steam _literally_ coming out if her ears (probably a magical side affect of anger or something).

Link sat down, feeling like he had just been trampled by a thousand gorons. Ganondorf emerged from the trees, feeling particularly mean-spirited and smirking at Link's misfortune.

"Looks like you two have had a little _fight_. Oh dear me! Will she _ever_ forgive you?"

Link just stared at the ground in front of him, his eyes still wide with shock. Suddenly he spoke up "I use to be just a ranch hand. I had never gone past Faron woods before. Then one day that world was ripped apart and I was thrown into the twilight realm. Midna rescued me and then she never left my side! Well she did when I spoke to the light spirits, but she was always there when I needed her. If it wasn't for her I would have gone mad with loneliness. And then she was gone."

Link buried his head in his knees "When she came back, I thought that everything would be like it use to be, but it isn't. It isn't even close. I- I don't know what to do!"

"Don't come crying to me. I was the one you caused you're itty bitty world to be "ripped apart" remember little ranch hand?" Ganondorf shook his head, sneering with distain "You really wouldn't have been able to defeat me without the twili's help would you? Well she doesn't depend on you anymore, so get over it."

Link turned his head to Ganondorf. And then he stood up, staring Ganondorf in the eye. Ganondorf smirked, was the idiot really going to try and attack him?

"Train me."

Ganondorf's eyebrows shot up in disbelief "What?"

"You think I'm a weakling, and you're right. So train me."

Ganondorf laughed "You're kidding right?! Why would I train someone that I'm going to try and kill as soon as this war is over?"

Link's face was dead serious "Because from what I've seen of Muerte, you'll need the strongest allies you can have."

Ganondorf smirked "You're really serious aren't you?" he looked thoughtful "Well… on one condition. I get to keep whatever item we find in that cave."

Link was shocked into silence once more.

Ganondorf's smirk grew wider "I'll even let you talk about it with the other two! But keep this in mind: you're right; you have no chance against Muerte right now. So do you value you're lives more than a trinket?"

Link nodded slowly, and darted off to talk to the two princesses.


	25. Chapter 25

Link leapt aside, Ganondorf's sword swinging so close that it sliced a chunk of his hair off. The sword swooped toward him again before Link could even counterattack, and Link dropped to the ground and rolled around Gannondorf, bringing his sword into position for a back-slice as he did. He leapt up and swung his sword with a shout.

Only to hear the clang of metal as his sword met Ganondorf's sword and his face met the most gloating expression in existence.

"Do you really think I'll still fall for that?! You've used it a thousand times by now! _Try_ to be a _little_ less predictable."

Link didn't respond. Instead he pushed at the blade with all his strength, hoping to overpower Ganondorf. Ganondorf gave a bark of laughter, but didn't retaliate with his own strength. Instead, he stomped one _very_ heavy foot onto Link's toes. Link leapt back with a yelp of pain and surprise, realizing with shock that his toes were now _broken_. He scowled and held up his hand for a break, plopping down on the stone of the mountain and easing off his boot with a grimace.

Ganondorf sneered "Ever heard the expression 'all's fair in love and war'?"

Link ignored him, inspecting his now bloody toes and scowling even harder. Ganondorf might not have a code of honor, but couldn't he at least see that breaking Link's foot would hinder them later on?!

As if reading his mind, Ganondorf's sneer grew larger "Only you're toes are broken, not you're whole foot. You can walk just fine."

Zelda glanced across the mountain for anything that might betray an entrance. The mountain was amazingly uneven, and anyone of the thousands of jagged peaks protruding from miles of rock could be hiding an entrance to the cave.

She sighed and began clamoring across the mountain. Even with the triforce's help, she couldn't think of a better plan than simply searching the mountain. And that was _far_ from a good plan. For all they knew, the temple could be all the way on the other side of the mountain ring.

Zelda brushed aside a few stones absentmindedly. She glanced over the mountain again; hoping repetition would show something she missed before.

And then she froze.

Zelda turned her head back to the pile of stones. In the center was a piece of jet black obsidian about the size of her fist. Zelda ran a few calculations through her head, confirming what she already knew. The mountains she was currently on separated her from Snowpeak, and obsidian was made from cooled lava. In other words, finding obsidian here was like finding a kokiri at Hyrule Castle.

Zelda examined the stone carefully. It almost looked as if there was a symbol on it, one of a three spiked flame. Zelda's eyes widened, it was the symbol of the fire sage. Her hand flew to the stone and she tried to pick it up. But it was apparently part of the mountain itself. Zelda's eyes shone with delight, the only way it could actually be fused into the mountain in this area was if someone had melted the rocks into lava. She brushed aside the pebbles around the stone, revealing a stripe of the black stone running off to her left.

The sage of fire had given her a path.

Zelda scrambled over the mountain, brushing away stones as she did.

And then it was in front of her, a simple cave by first appearance, but Zelda knew what it led to. She shouted for the other three.

Midna was the first to appear, flying (literally) from where she had been searching. Ganondorf came next, and Link was only a few steps behind him (he was delayed by injury or else Ganondorf would have been left in the dust).

Zelda smiled and gave a dramatic bow "I present to you, the temple under the mountains!"


	26. Chapter 26

Despite Zelda's reassurance that the cave would lead them to the temple under the mountains, none of them had ever seen anything less temple-like in their lives.

The tunnel was dark and damp, mold covering ever inch of the rock and making the path treacherously slippery. The stone was jagged and uneven as well, jabbing into their feet and threatening to split the soles of their shoes in two. At one point, Zelda had accidentally placed her hand on the wall, and now she had a bloody slash along her left hand to match Link's broken toes.

Ganondorf scowled as one of the stone spikes finally succeeded in puncturing his boot and he narrowly escaped having his foot punctured as well. He stopped and unhooked his boot from the spike.

"_How_ exactly is this going to lead us to a temple? I've seen a lot of temples and none have had something like _this_ leading to them!"

Zelda frowned slightly, she was beginning to have doubts as well "I suppose the temples here are different. But I _know _I saw the symbol of the Fire Sage in that obsidian."

Ganondorf snorted "Yes, yes. And the seven sages know _everything_." He snorted "Would you like me to tell you what those six were _before_ they got their ever so wonderful titles?"

Link and Midna both gave out simultaneous groans and rolled their eyes. Zelda started walking again, hoping Ganondorf would take the hint. He didn't.

"The fire sage was the goron leader. He spent all his time listening to silly little tunes. When I tried to get his spiritual stone, he asked me to dance with him! You've met the sage of the forest. She's a child! And being a kokiri, she's never going to get any older! Now the sage of _water_! She was the princess of the zora, and the most stuck up little brat I have ever seen!"

Midna grinned at that "Hyrulians defiantly has a strange way of raising royalty. How can you expect any different?"

Zelda decided to ignore that comment.

"The sage of shadow was the previous princess Zelda's body guard. I have to admit that she wasn't a bad fighter, but she couldn't even leave the room without trying to be dramatic! She never just used the door; that would be _much_ too easy! Instead, she used a ever-so-mysterious smoke bomb and _then_ used the door. As for the sage of spirit, well she is a back-stabbing, traitorous, filthy, disgusting, sneak-handed, _sly-motive, _KIN-SLAYER!"

Zelda tried to act as if she hadn't noticed his outburst, but Midna and Link stopped dead in their tracks, staring at him.

Ganondorf glared at them, in a bad mood from just the _mention_ of Nabooru "What?"

He stomped ahead of them, ignoring the spikes of rock that were now making Swiss cheese out of his boots and feet.

Midna's eyes widened in disbelief "What?! He just had the biggest outburst in history and he's asking what?! Call me crazy but I _think_ he might just have a _slight_ personal grudge against the sage of spirit!"

Zelda shook her head, feeling pity for Ganondorf "You're over-analyzing him Midna. He's just… had a lot of stress lately.

Midna raised her eyebrow and started to speak, but Link beat her to the punch "You're a really bad liar Zelda. I'm just wondering why you're covering for him."

Zelda shook her head, not responding. She told herself she was covering for Ganondorf out of pity, but even she wasn't sure if that was true.

Link suddenly froze. "Do you hear that?"

The two princesses followed his lead and stopped to listen. There was a faint rumbling coming from the walls, one that was now fading.

Link followed the sound with his eyes. It was moving toward Ganondorf. During Link's recent training, Ganondorf had taught him to always be alert, which was why Link was now perceptive enough to hear the sound. But Ganondorf, in his rage, was ignoring his own advice and totally oblivious to his surroundings.

All three of them sped toward Ganondorf, giving out a shout as they did.

But even as the words of warning left their throats, the thing burst from the tunnel walls in front of Ganondorf. If someone from earth were to see it, they might say it looked something like a parrot with giant pearly claws instead of wings and a lipless gash in it's face were it's beak would have been. In any other situation, it might have actually been considered beautiful. But right now, it was only deadly.

Ganondorf, despite his oblivion, snatched the bird from the air before it could even touch him. He pinned its claws to its sides and threw it to the ground.

Another burst from behind them, its claws raking into Midna even as she fired a bolt into it. At the close range, the tunnel bird was incinerated before it could even realize it.

And then the walls themselves exploded; the stone disappearing into feathers and claws.

Even for the four best warriors in Hyrule, the odds were _not_ in their favor.


	27. Chapter 27

Link felt a tunnel bird's talons dig into his shoulders and he swung his sword toward it. He felt it connect with triumph, only to turn to dismay as the feathered mass he had struck flew away, revealing it to be an entirely different one from the bird that had him caught. He swung again, with the same result. Only this time the bird knocked the sword from his hand as it retreated. The master sword tumbled down. And down. And down. Link's eyes widened as he saw how high he was now.

Link didn't mind heights so much. He had fallen from death mountain on multiple occasions and lived to tell the tale. He had talked a dragon while it was in mid-air and plummeted to the ground with it. He had been blasted in-between Hyrule and the Occooco city with a canon for Fyore's sake! But he knew that a drop from _this_ height would most defiantly kill him. So he stopped struggling and glanced up to find out how the wing-less bird was up so high.

It was, for lack of better word, _swinging_ along the cave ceiling. A little like a monkey swings from tree to tree (and Link had enough experience with monkeys to know), except that instead of grabbing a tree branch, it dug its claws into the rock.

Link glanced around among the flock of birds that blocked his view, searching in vain for his allies. Midna, at least, should have been able to escape. She could have simply dissolved between the birds claws. Link suddenly felt a sickening jolt as he saw Midna in one of the bird's claws. She was unconscious, and quite burnt. She must have fired a spell off at close range to a bird and been caught in it herself. If her wounds weren't attended to soon then… Link shook his head. One step at a time. That was how he had finished all the other temples and that was how he would complete this one.

Link gave an experimental jab to the bird just as it anchored into the rock. The bird paused for a second and its claws slipped from the rock. Link paled as it began to plummet.

Then the bird grabbed the rock with its other claw and continued.

Link gave a sigh of relief and a prayer or thanks to Nayru. Apparently all he could do was wait and hope he was over solid ground soon.

Zelda landed in the birds nest with a thump. She had already realized this was where the bird had been taking her, so she was prepared. She scanned the nest quickly for danger.

It was a small nest, about the size of the goron patriarch when he was curled up. There was only one egg in it, about the height of a toddler. It wasn't hatching currently, so there was no danger there.

The nest was perched on a tall spire of stone in the center of a enormous cavern. The slime and moss on the stone were so thick that the tunnel had been bare by comparison. Zelda quickly ruled out climbing. Or jumping for that matter, the fall was tall enough to shatter diamond if it was dropped.

Suddenly there was a crunch from behind Zelda: the sound of something enormous landing on the nest. Zelda turned around slowly, nervous at what she might find.

Something I should tell you: the tunnel birds were big. They were about as tall as Zelda. But there was a tunnel bird behind Zelda, and the others were midgets compared to this one.

Zelda's eyes bulged in their sockets. As I mentioned before, the birds resembled parrots. The giant bird looked like a cockatoo, one with a golden plume and matching golden claws. It almost looked as if it was smiling at Zelda. Not even the nasty type of smile that Ganondorf gave, it was almost saintly.

If Zelda had been anyone else, she might have been lulled into peace, doubtless the point of the bird's beauty. But Zelda had the triforce of wisdom.

And the triforce was telling her to GET AWAY.

Zelda leapt out of the nest, ignoring the fact of height. If the triforce said to get away at any cost: you got away at any cost. The bird's head plunged into the nest, swallowing the thing whole, egg and all.

Zelda snatched at the moss at she fell, trying to slow her descent down at all. A small quantity of the bird's spit landed on the moss near her. Zelda would have sworn by all three goddesses that the moss was screaming in pain.

Zelda let go of the moss, she didn't care if she was killed by the fall, she wanted to get away from that thing as fast as she could.

It was dark now. Cover sighed in relief. The shadows were his element, his domain. Egon shifted beside him, nervous.

The silence was too much Egon blurted something out, not even thinking of the words before he said them "You know you'll be executed for this."

Cover nodded "I know. But if they fail, everyone will be dead. So if I'm going to die, at least I can do it heroically. Save a few lives and such. Maybe they'll put a statue of me up in hyrule!" he grinned "Spose that would be kinda hard. Seeing as no one in hyrule has seen my face."

Egon shifted again "Why _do_ you hide you're face Mr. Cover?"

"Hmm? Oh it was because I knew you're village would freak if they ever saw it."

Egon frowned "Why?"

Cover shrugged and his hand went to his face "I suppose I might as well show you, seeing as I'm on death row anyway."

He took the spectacles off and unwrapped the bandages over his face, pushing his hood back as he did.

A comb of silvery hair shone in the moonlight, contrasting with his tanned skin. He turned his head toward Egon with a grin, his crimson eyes shining.

"Funny how something normal people do every day can feel like such a luxury."

Egon's eyes were wide with terror "W-What are you?!"

Cover's grin turned to a frown, stung "Tch! Leave I to a villager be terrified of someone they've known for years! I'm a sheikah, a one of the shadow people of hyrule. Body-gaurds of the royal family until a few years ago."

Egon was too terrified to speak, but Cover continued anyway, looking at the moon now. He had wanted to tell someone about his mission for so long!

"We sheikah are scattered all over now, don't ask me why cause I don't know. But I was born here, same as you. A while ago, the sage of shadow came to me. She told me 'bout the four hyrulians coming. To defeat Muerte and all. And she told me I was suppose to help them." His face turned to a shining grin "imagine! The sage of shadow! She spoke to me! Me!"

Egon finally was able to speak "I don't know what you're trying to do. But those four'll be stopped Mr. Cover!"

Cover turned his head back to Egon "You better hope not. Because if they do fail, we're all dead." He shrugged "Oh and it's Itzal."

"What?"

"My name. Since I've shown you my face already, you might as well know my name. It's Itzal."

Suddenly Itzal's eyes widened and his hand shot to his pocket. He brought out a black disk, and his eyes widened.

"Crap."

"What?"

"I'm leaving. Go home if you want."  
"What? Aren't you scared I'll tell where you're camp is?"

"We won't come back to the camp. If they win. They go back to hyrule. If they lose. We're all dead."

There was a poof of smoke, and Egon was gone. As Ganondorf said, the sheikah tended to like drama.

Chamber of the Sages

**" I have sent Itzal, but I don't think he will be enough."**

"Well of COURSE he won't be."

"_They need another warrior though."_

"Well only three of us have helped them now. Two of us can still help"

_"Make that just me."_

"Right, I forgot."

_"_Whaaaaaat?! Why isn't she helping?"

**"She says she is holding back support for when Ganondorf betrays them."**

"Well that's just silly!"

"Actually it's smart."

"Pfft! You four are serious pessemists!"

_"Realists. You never met Ganondorf face-toface have you?"_

**"Actually I agree with Saria."**

"You can't be serious."

**"He got the triforce for a reason."**

_"He got it because he stole it!"_

**"Zelda turned back time. That never happened."**

_"Well if the battle didn't affect this timeline at all then the triforce would still be locked away."_

"And _none_ of them would have a piece of the triforce."

**"I suppose that is true..."**

"Pfft! I wasn't talking about the triforce."

"What do you mean?"

"You really haven't noticed?! Well then I'm sure not gonna spoil it!"


	28. Chapter 28

Link had just been dropped into a nest when he heard Zelda scream. His eyes widened and he cast his eyes around in vain for any hint of her. He shook his head, chasing away the thoughts of despair that were threatening his mind. He had lost his sword and all his other weapons were being held by Midna. Link was never quite sure how it worked, but Midna could store limitless objects with her twili magic. Unluckily, she was the only one who could retrieve them.

So all he had was his shield, which was great for defense, but totally useless in attack. Any one else would have been completely helpless, but Link just grinned.

A moment later a gray wolf with a metal shield on his back stood in the hero's place. One thing Link could never figure out was how his clothes seemed to disappear into thin air but his weapons only disappeared if Midna took them up. He gave a wolf-equivalent of a shrug and began to sniff around the nest.

There were two things of interest in this nest. One was the eggs in the corner, which Link was having a very hard time not eating (they smelled so yummy!), the other was a small patch in the center of the nest that smelled like dirt.

He began to tear away at the sticks separating him from the dirt with his paws and fangs. Soon his front paws contacted the soft brown of soil, but he didn't stop, there was something important here. The dirt seemed to sparkle in his mind's eye, calling out that it hid something.

And then the dirt gave away, and he fell. Apparently the pillar was hollow.

He landed in a small lake of some sort. The first thing Link realized was that there was no way to get back to the nest. The walls slanted straight up and were covered with the same slimey moss that was on the outside. And the entire chamber was one big lake.

Link transformed into a human again. He dove under the surface to see if there was anything of use. He couldn't even see the bottom. It wasn't that the lake was particularly deep, it was just that it was really murky. Link swam around in the lake a little, trying to think of a plan.

He sighed, Midna was a lot better than he was at these things. She could figure out the weak spot of every enemy they had! Well except for Darknut, Midna hadn't known anything about the swordplay needed to defeat the golem knight. Link had gloated over _that_ for a while! It was strange to see Ganondorf using Darknut's sword now… but he was getting distracted.

Suddenly Link froze, his arms and legs stopped stroking the water for an instant and he was rewarded with a small plunge under the water. He shot back to the surface, sputtering. Of course! Ganondorf!

_Ganondorf pushed the master sword out of Link's reach after disarming him again. I think I've given you a bit too much credit in the whole defeating me thing You must have had a heck of a lot of help to do it because you haven't beaten me even once!_

_Link opened his mouth to protest, but Ganondorf cut him off._

"_You rely too much on physical strength little hero. Why don't you use a spell or something? You have the triforce's power to draw on!"_

_Link shook his head and Ganondorf rolled his eyes._

"_You don't know any spells do you? Din help me! Or I suppose it's Naru help me since I'm dealing with you. Fine, watch me."_

_He pointed the back of his right hand at a nearby bolder, one about the size of Fyrus, and the triforce began to glow. Suddenly a burst of gold light shot out and blasted the stone to dust._

_Ganondorf smirked at Link "There. Your's won't be nearly as strong as mine since you don't have the triforce of power, but it will give you a nice hidden weapon if you need it. Just concentrate on the power in you're triforce and it will come to you. Now lets move to a different training ground before any villagers who saw that come running."_

Judging from what the pillar had looked like from outside, the walls weren't very thick. Link aimed for the wall with his hand, rewarded again by going under and coming up sputtering. The metal shield wasn't helping things much. He tried again, and found that paddling with just one hand spun him in circles. He sighed in annoyance and tried again, this time paddling with his legs like crazy while aiming with his left hand and leaving his right to be lazy.

Finally, he got the hang of it and focused on the symbol of the triforce. It was a lot like what he had done in the chamber of sages, except this time he was focusing on power instead of calling.

He once again, he turned into a wolf. Link gave a howl of frustration, the sound echoing against the stone. He couldn't aim like this! Or maybe… Link focused on his forehead, the place where Midna always told him there was a funny mark. Maybe if he focused on that…

He noticed detachedly that he was howling a song again. Suddenly he felt a heat on his forehead. He felt a moment of triumph, but it was quickly extinguished. It was too hot! He hadn't felt this hot since he had accidentally set Barnes bomb storage on fire! He gave a yowl of pain and the power was finally released. The wall was blasted away and the water carried Link out of the pillar in a little waterfall.

Link stood up drunkenly, he couldn't see straight, he couldn't stand strait, he couldn't think straight, he couldn't even hear, feel, or (most importantly) _smell_ straight! He half stumbled, half limped across the floor. Whimpering as he did.

Zelda held the triforce of wisdom, so even while falling to her death, she kept her head. And there was still a long distance to the ground, therefore, time to save herself. She yanked her bow off her back, charging the arrow with power from her triforce. She yanked back the string, pulling it taut until the bowstring drew blood. Then she released and the arrow exploded against the ground.

The explosion's force pushed her back into the air, when she fell again; it was a lot less distance to fall. She hit the ground on her feet, catlike, scorched from the power of the explosion, but alive.

Zelda whirled around to face the birds, but there was no need. They wouldn't follow her, though they eyed her angrily. One suddenly leapt forward to try and climb down the pillar, and Zelda readied her bow.

But the thing's claws broke against the stone of the pillar, and it plummeted to the ground. _It_ had no triforce-charged arrows to save it.

Zelda couldn't help but smile, she had saved herself this time. No guard or hero had needed to come to her rescue.

She ran through the pillars to see if she could find the others. But behind her, the largest tunnel bird seemed to smile his smile once again ironically saint-like. It knew that the hyrulian would be coming back.

Itzal dashed through the passages. He had no light to guide him, he was, after all, a sheikah. It had been easy to follow them, everyone but Ganondorf left a clear trail, and Itzal was reasonably sure that the thief had been with them.

He had not bothered to put his disguise back on, he had decided there was no more need for it. The bandages, spectacles, and gloves were gone; his feet were as bare as his hands. But most importantly, he had taken off the hooded coat he had worn, in its place was a black tunic, one with a weeping crimson eye in the center. The symbol that had been on the gossip stone, and the symbol of the sheikah.

Then Itzal was in the nest room. His eyes widened, but he didn't let himself gasp. The tunnel that led to the cavern was near the ceiling, but Itzal didn't even pause. Unlike the pillars, the walls of the cavern were normal stone, so it was child's play for him to scale down. Only then did he slow, now clinging to the shadows so whatever enemies were here couldn't see him.

Itzal held his black disk into the air, recalling the shadow sage's words.

"_This item is attracted to those of the shadow, it was made to find sheikah, but it should be able to locate those of the twilight just as well. The princess of twilight, the chosen hero, and Ganondorf all have attributes of shadow. Hopefully, at least one of them will be in the company of Zelda, for she is entirely of light, and it will not react to her."_

Itzal dropped the disk and it plummeted to the ground, stopping only a moment before impact. It grew, stopping once it was about two feet in diameter. Itzal stepped onto it cautiously, balancing on it like a surfer on his board.

He focused the image of wolf Link in his mind, and the disk shot off through the pillars, intent on its target. Itzal just barely avoided falling off.


	29. Chapter 29

The wolf collapsed to the ground. He could barely see, only shapeless blobs penetrated his mind. At one point the wolf had been able to see in color, a remnant of his other form, but now even the colors faded, leaving only tints of grey in their place. Sounds jumbled together, losing meaning, and scents blurred even further. Soon he could not even tell up from down.

Something moved in his vision, a dark shape. The wolf tried to separate its scent from the others, tried to identify what it was. But he had no luck. A sound reached his ears, but all he could only decipher one word from it: Link.

Who was Link? He knew it was a name, but that was all. The shape moved toward him and he snarled. The shape moved back, uncertain. That was good… if he could only keep it away… but blackness claimed him before he could even finish the thought.

Itzal stared at the wolf that was Link, shocked. His eyes were clouded and foam spilled from his lips. What had happened?

He shook his head and picked up the unconscious form, not without difficulty of course, but he managed. He shoved Link onto the disk and tapped it twice. The disk grew, now three feet in size.

Itzal hopped on, teetering precariously on the small space left by Link's unconscious form. He focused Midna's face, and the disk sped away again.

Egon sat in the clearing, uncertain what to do. Cover, no, Itzal, was right. Egon _had_ known him his whole life. Cover, _Itzal_, was never very important in the village, he was simply _there_. But that was enough for the fact that he was associated with _magic_ users to be shocking. Were they really evil? Cover (ITZAL) was sure he was doing the right thing, and only the big scary man that had threatened him really acted like he was evil.

Egon shook his head; he didn't have to worry about it any more. They were gone. But this had been the most exciting thing in Egon's life, and he wished there was something he could do for the heroes. He paused for a second, surprised at what he had thought. Not the part about helping them, he had realized already he wanted that, however much it shamed him.

It was that he had called them heroes. But that was what they were to him. They were heroes.

Suddenly there was a whinny from behind him and Egon whirled around. There was a black horse there, a black horse with red eyes. There was already a saddle on her back. And the look in her eyes was clear: get on.

Egon paused for only a moment before getting on.

Lilith suppressed a shudder as the boy got into the saddle. The boy, though having no illusions about being her master, was far from worthy. But her warrior called for help, so she would bring it.

When Zelda finally found Link and Midna, they were laying next to a campfire, Link in wolf form. Next to them was a stranger, one that seemed peaceful, but a stranger none the less.

She approached cautiously, and in one quick movement she pulled out her sword and pressed it against the stranger's throat.

"Don't move."

The stranger stiffened, but didn't seem frightened "It's Cover Zelda. I came to help."

"Cover? You're suppose to stay with Egon!"

"I was told to help you here."

"Told?"

"Sit down, this might take a while."

Itzal told Zelda everything he had told Egon, and what had happened since they had left camp.

"And then I found Midna and we landed here. I can't carry them both on this thing, it doesn't grow any bigger. So I can only hope Ganondorf is all right."

Zelda nodded "Well I'll see what I can do for these two."

She went to Link first. She ran her hands over the fur on his head, instinctively knowing that was where the damage was. Her right hand began to glow golden, and the glow ran into Link's body.

Zelda explained to Itzal as she worked "He used the triforce, channeled it into a blast of power. My guess is Ganondorf showed him how. But he tried to channel it through his forhead, and for the power to do there, it had to pass through his front leg, his chest, his neck, and his head." She paused for a minute, reluctant to say the next part "Just because it is his triforce, doesn't mean that it can't damage him. He half fried his own body, including his brain and spinal cord. His triforce has already healed him quite a bit though, so I don't need to do too much."

Even as she finished speaking, the glow stopped, and Link's breathing returned to normal "He just needs rest now."

She went to Midna next, examining her wounds more closely than Link's. As she did so, she turned paler and paler.

"She's anemic from blood loss. And… she has been poisoned" Zelda recalled the giant bird's saliva "I think the bird's spit, or at least the spit of the biggest one, is poisonous. She could only be saved with an antidote, which we don't have."

Itzal looked solem "So she might as well be dead already."

Zelda shook her head "I didn't say that."

Her triforce began to glow again, flowing into Midna as it did into Link. But it wasn't the power alone that went to Midna this time. Zelda was transferring the triforce of wisdom to Midna, the only way to keep her alive until the poison was cured.

Zelda shivered and turned to Itzal "Don't tell Ganondorf that I gave Midna the triforce."

"Why?"

Zelda was shaking, fear was no longer held back by the triforce "Because the triforce is my value on this journey. I am its chosen guardian, so I wield it best. But we can't take the time to find an antidote, we have to go straight to Muerte. So Midna must keep the triforce until we have defeated it. I can't fight well enough to be valuable anymore, I'm only a burden. Ganondorf has had a grudge against me for ordering him around. If he finds out I'm useless." She gulped "He will kill me."


	30. Chapter 30

Ganondorf had also arrived in the nesting cavern, but he had come by choice, not because he had been captured. He was currently chewing on a tunnel bird bone that he had killed for dinner while searching for the others.

"Tch. Stupid heroes can't even defeat a few birds. Am I the only one who can actually do anything around here? I mean seriously-"

_"Perhaps you should just abandon them."_

"Shut up. I need them"

_"That's silly. You only need them if you use the triforce seal. If you just defeat Muerte, it won't be a problem."_

Ganondorf almost replied but then he realized he was talking to himself and shut up. The voices were getting worse again, and he knew it wasn't going to take long before he went entirely mad. His skin was already taking on a sickly tinge. He wondered how much it would speed up if he actually used gerudo sorcery; he actually almost tested it before realizing it was insanity talking.

Ganondorf sighed and rubbed his forhead, the triforce catching his eye as he did. He never had figured out how he got that. It had just appeared when the sages tried to execute him. He wondered if it was related to his insanity somehow. He shook his head, it didn't matter.

Suddenly, something caught the gerudo's eye. It was a stripe of obsidian. It ran up a nearby pillar. Hadn't Zelda said that the obsidian led them here? Ganondorf examined the pillar.

It was identical to the others (not including the obsidian stripe), except that this pillar was _huge_. The bird that would nest there would be enormous! And if this temple was like those of Hyrule, then the item would have a guardian.

Ganondorf grinned. So maybe the sages weren't _total_ idiots.

Itzal sighed "I suppose I better search for Ganondorf now. Not that I would mind missing his presence for a while longer, but we probably need him."

Zelda nodded "I suppose. Thanks Itzal."

"No need sheikah. I'm already here."

Zelda and Itzal spun around to find Ganondorf standing between the pillars behind them, three bird carcasses slung over his back.

He smirked at their expressions "Hoping I was dead? Sorry to disappoint, but those little feathered freaks can't even scratch me." He tossed the dead birds to Itzal. He caught them, but not without quite some difficulty

"Itzal is it? If I have any talent in remembering voices, you were previously known as Cover."

Itzal nodded, sitting back down while trying not to drop any of the birds. Ganondorf strode over and plopped down on the opposite side of the fire.

"The birds got the twili and her puppy I see. Are they dead?"

Zelda shook her head "Injured."

"Anything permanent?"

Zelda shook her head again.

"How long will it take for them to heal?"

"They should be ready by morning."

Ganondorf nodded "I found the item. I'll show you in the morning. Roast yourself up some bird; I already ate so I'm going to sleep."

Before either of them could reply, Ganondorf was snoring. He hadn't even bothered to lie down.

Ganondorf was in a river, floating on the top like a piece of driftwood. He turned his head up, trying to see where he was. He was back in the gerudo desert, and the entire tribe was at the banks. They were drinking the water. He tried to shout out that it was poisoned, but he couldn't speak. They drank it, and then died, right before his eyes. Their bloated corpses fell into the water and floated past him, the eyes staring at him accusingly. But they kept drinking. Ganondorf tried to move, tired to warn them. And then there was only one Gerudo left, and his legs worked. He sprinted over to her, grabbing her hands and stopping her from drinking. _"poison." _She turned her face up to him, and it was Nabooru. She laughed and plunged the sage's sword into his chest. A dagger plunged into him from behind, and Ganondorf turned to see Chariton laughing at him from behind. Ganondorf felt his right hand heat up and suddenly they were the ones below _his_ dagger. It was both of them at the same time. Utter revenge. And then it was Zelda under his dagger. Blood was flowing from her mouth like a river, but she was smiling at him. _"I guess I was wrong. We _won't_ ever be friends."_

Ganondorf woke with a jolt, panting. He scowled at himself _"That was stupid. You _will_ kill them when the time comes. You have to kill them or they will kill you."_

So why did it keep echoing in his head? Why did he feel so horrified by Zelda's blood-stained face? He shook his head and stood up. He didn't need _them_ as companions. The only people that didn't think of gerudo as scum, no matter how much they acted otherwise, were other gerudo. He had learned that long ago.

He stood up and stared off at the edge of the cave. Somehow, the cave had day and night just as it did outside. It wasn't quite dawn yet, but he could see the outline of the tallest pillar.

He didn't need them, he could get the item on his own.

He left them, all dozing next to the campfire. He wasn't going to become like them. Like Link, who was a weakling without help, too much of a weakling to have defeated him. Like Zelda, who always had depended on others to save her, and couldn't save herself. No, he wouldn't become like them. He was Ganondorf, and he needed no companions.

Perhaps he would find use for them later, but he would use them as tools, and use them as little as possible.

Ganondorf nodded and set off for the pillar. He was Ganondorf, and he needed no companions.


	31. Chapter 31

The pillar was tall, and seemingly un-scalable, but Ganondorf had remembered the obsidian stripe, and that was his way up. Obsidian is a pretty hard rock, but unlike the stuff that made up the pillar, it isn't impenetrable.

Ganondorf made sure his sword was securely tied to his back, and then pulled out two daggers from his pockets. He shivered slightly as he saw the daggers, remembering his dream, but he shook his head and continued. He slammed one the daggers into the obsidian, using it as anchors. He pulled himself up with it, and then slammed the other one up even higher. Basically, it was rock climbing without the luxury of using his feet. It was tedious, but he finally reached the top.

There was a nest on the tip of the pillar, one just like all the others in everything except size. Inside the nest was the king bird. It had been waiting for him.

The bird smiled and Ganondorf smirked back, their two grins an ironic contrast. The saint-like one of the bird, and the demon-like one of Ganondorf, who, for once, was the good guy. Then the bird struck.

Ganondorf leapt out of the way just in time, barely keeping his balance on the edge of the pillar. Before the bird could strike again, Ganondorf had drawn his sword and leapt onto the birds back. But the bird wouldn't be taken down so easily, it reared up, gravity forcing Ganondorf to snatch the bird's feathers so he wouldn't fall off. He bit the bird in pure spite, getting nothing but a mouthful of feathers. The bird gave out a caw that almost sounded like a laugh, and then it leapt into the air and began to swing along the ceiling.

Ganondorf was still holding his sword with his right hand, so he could only grasp the feathers properly with his left. His right hand was jolted of the feathers by the swinging, and his left was practically yanked out of its socket. But there was no way he would let go of his sword.

His left hand was slipping, and Ganondorf swung his sword up to its sheath, his left fist so tight on the feathers that it was starting to go numb. He finally managed to sheath his sword, and only then did he swing up his right hand to aid his left. But at that moment the bird turned sharply, spinning in an one-eighty degree circle. Ganondorf's grip slipped off entirely, and he went flying.

But Ganondorf wasn't one to be taken down so easily either. He snatched the bird's tail feathers as he went down, and the bird screeched in pain.

It lost its own grip on the ceiling, but only for a moment. It quickly regained it, but could only hang there instead of swinging. Instead, it shook its entire body like crazy, trying to dislodge Ganondorf. Ganondorf grinned, even though his brains were being scrambled by the shaking. Apparently he had found a weakness, but while it was a weakness, pulling out its tail feathers couldn't kill it.

He hung on as tight as he could, and then when the tail swung upward in the earthquake attempt to get rid the pest, Ganondorf let go. It was a gamble, he didn't know if he the bird would move before he could grab on, but a well placed gamble. Ganondorf landed on the bird's head.

The king bird began swinging again, but while Ganondorf was still stopped from drawing his sword, he was no longer in danger of falling unless the bird itself lost its grip on the ceiling.

Which was exactly what Ganondorf was planning.

The triforce began to glow, and Ganondorf grew bigger and bigger, fur and tusks sprouting as he turned into Ganon.

The bird couldn't hold the weight it grabbed at the stone even more desperately than Ganondorf had grabbed at its feathers, but in vain. Its claws snapped, and they both plummeted to the ground. On the way down, the bird managed to bite Ganon, one last attack.

Then the king bird was dead. The force of the earth and the weight of Ganon had snapped its spinal cord to fast for it to even realize what had happened.

Ganon stood up unsteadily, transforming back into his 'dorf version as he did. The bird's body had cushioned the fall, but it was still quite a bit of impact.

He began to laugh. He had been right, he hadn't needed the others.

"The others" woke up to find Ganondorf snoring right were they left him, albeit bruised and bloody. He only woke up long enough to point towards the largest pillar. He wouldn't explain anything; only mutter something about not wanting to climb it again before going back to sleep.

They encountered the bird's corpse on the way there; all of them were noticeably shaken by it. Midna flew to the top of the pillar, finding a treasure box in the center of the birds nest. They brought it back to the camp without opening it, though it took forever to do so. They figured that Ganondorf should at least have the honor of seeing the chest opened.

But a dangerous question worried all of their minds: if Ganondorf was so strong, perhaps he _could_ defeat Muerte alone. And if he could, he didn't need them any longer. But they _did_ need him. In other words: they couldn't get rid of them, but he could stab them in the back whenever he wanted.

They could only hope _Ganondorf_ didn't think he could defeat Muerte alone.


	32. Chapter 32

Midna examined her right hand. She had adjusted the fabric on her sleeve ever so slightly, and it now covered the mark of the triforce. The outfit Zelda was wearing for travel didn't have gloves, so they had wrapped her hand in bandages, saying that it had been hurt in her escape from the birds.

Midna frowned. She could _see_ the facts clearly now, but, unlike Zelda, she could neither select the ones she needed, nor put them into a plan any more than she had been able to before.

Ganondorf, considering the circumstances, was barely wounded. Of course, he still had _some_ wounds, mostly from scraping against the stone. Zelda had been relieved to find that she could tell by simply glancing at them that none of them were even close to life threatening. If they had been, she would have to reveal her lack of triforce for Midna to heal them. The gerudo had apparently decided he wanted help for the battle with Muerte: none of them received a dagger in the back.

Link hadn't transformed from his wolf form since escaping from the birds, they had found the master sword easily, but Midna was wearing it so it wouldn't change him back. Unless Midna was misunderstanding Link (which was very unlikely) not even Link knew exactly why, but he 'said' that, literally, something smelled funny.

Link trotted up to Midna as she was thinking of him. He nodded towards the fire, Ganondorf was awake and she should come. Midna nodded and followed Link.

The other three were situated around the chest, all looking impatiently exited. They looked like if Midna didn't get over soon they'd pop. So of course, Midna purposely took her time just for the heck of it. Link walked beside her, realizing what she was doing and imitating her. If he could, he would have been grinning.

Finally Itzal faked opening the chest and Link dashed ahead, howling in protest. Midna laughed and obligingly sped up.

Ganondorf was the one to open the chest. After all, not only had he retrieved in single handedly, training Link had earned him the possession of it. He grinned, and opened the chest. Apparently whoever placed it had been to Hyrule, for it displayed a very pretty light show before revealing its contents (though this chest glowed with white light instead of yellow).

The item itself… well… Midna was the first to speak, saying what was on all their minds.

"What in heck is it?"

Ganondorf scowled "It's _little_."

It was a black L-shaped piece of metal with a loop of metal where the two sides of the L met. Inside the loop was a little metal lever of some sort. One end was covered with cloth, the tip of the other end had a hole in it.

Midna picked it up carefully, hoping that it wouldn't somehow activate while she was holding it.

"Well apparently you pull this lever… and I'm guessing this" she indicated the cloth covered end "is some sort of grip, so that would mean that the other end must be for aiming?"

Itzal took it from her, still handling it gently and held it the way she suggested.

He gulped "Okay, back up. I'm gonna see what happens when you pull the lever."

They all obliged quickly and Itzal pointed the end with the hole in it towards a nearby pillar.

"Here goes nothing…"

He pulled the lever and the aiming end let out a huge bang. Itzal was knocked to the ground with recoil and something whizzed up and blasted a hole in the ceiling.

He blinked in shock "Wow."

Ganondorf took the object from Itzal "I heard of these. Apparently one of the previous gerudo acquired one-"

"Three guesses what aquired means" Midna whispered to Link

"-around halfway through his reign. It's called a gun."

Link suddenly looked up at the ceiling, snarling. Midna followed his gaze and her eyes widened.

A tiny crack in a dam will make the rest of the stone blockade useless. With all the twists and turns of the cave tunnels, they had unknowingly ended up below Muerte's lake. Itzal had put a crack in the ceiling. And the same rule applied.

The ceiling exploded. And as the water rushed down, Zelda had time for one. Very serious. Thought.

_"Ganondorf can't swim."_

And then the water hit them.


	33. Chapter 33

It felt like a sledgehammer. That's how hard the water hit them. Midna simply turned to shadow, the water passing strait through her. Link felt the full crushing weight of the water, but only had to hold his breath for a moment. After that Midna sent him his Zora armor, and he only had to worry about crashing into pillars. As it turned out, he had nothing to worry about, for they had all been crashed to the ground by the torrent of water. He didn't even bother trying to swim against the current. A real Zora _might_ have been able fight the rush of water (though even that was iffy) but there was no way that he would defeat it with his Zora armor and, comparatively, puny muscles as his only weapons.

Itzal would have received the full force of the shower, but he was fast, and he managed to board the black disk and fly out of the way. He now hovered at the top of the cavern, hoping fervently that the water would not fill the cavern entirely.

Zelda had cast a spell for breathing water. It was shaky, but holding. She was swept along the current as Link was, but while she didn't even have the flippers attached to the Zora armor to aid her, she was ignorant of her own limits. So she was trying as hard as she could to fight the current. She had to find Ganondorf, no one else knew what danger he was in. She realized with a sickening thought that Ganondorf was wearing metal armor, something that would not help his cause even if he did know how to swim.

She looked around her frantically, but, as with Link when he was in the pillar, the water was too murky to see very far. Zelda suddenly realized that Ganondorf's armor would keep him at least _near_ the bottom of the water. She plunged down into the depths of the pool, something a lot easier than fighting directly against the current.

And then she saw him.

Or rather she saw the glow of his triforce. It was compensating for his lack of air for the moment, an activity that made it glow like a lighthouse's beacon. Except in this case Zelda was heading _towards_ the light. He was unconscious now, the lack of oxygen shutting body down as much as possible without killing him. She grabbed his shirt first, making sure she had a hard anchor to him before anything else. Then she ripped the armor off, not bothering with undoing the straps.

As soon as the last strap was torn, the current grabbed again. Zelda was too tired to resist this time; she only used her strength to hold onto Ganondorf. She realized that her spell must not be working too well, for her mind was working sluggishly.

If she wasn't so tired, she would have kicked herself. The spell! She cast one on Ganondorf as hard as she could, but she knew that it was probably even more ragged than the one she cast on herself. Zelda felt her eyes growing heavy but she fought to stay awake. Just a little longer, a little longer. He vision was going black…

There was something ahead of her. It looked almost like a zora, but it was a strange one. Its head was shaped almost like a top, and there were two extra eyes on the left and right sides of the top-head. That shape head was somewhere in the history books, but where? She followed the Zora, only half conscious. The Zora suddenly disappeared, leaving them stranded again.

And then they hit air.

Zelda gasped the treasure up, gulping it down like ambrosia. She hauled Ganondorf's head into the air with a superhuman effort. And another treasure: her feet hit land.

She gave a yelp of joy and dragged herself toward land. In the back of her mind, she wondered how in the world she was carrying Ganondorf, even if she was dragging him. Human muscles, and hylian muscled apparently, seem to have extraordinary power when in extreme peril. Perhaps strength is simply held back until panic unlocks the secret reserves. But however it happened, Zelda made it.

As soon as they were on land, the triforce of power gave a burst of light and all the liquid that leaked into Ganondorf's lungs shot out in a geyser of water (a few stomach fluids seemed to have gotten in there as well but I won't go into detail). He gasped at air, his eyes rolling in their sockets so frantically that Zelda doubted he was actually conscious.

Then his body settled back into normal functioning, his eyes closed and his breathing evened into that of sleep. Zelda sighed in relief and followed his example, collapsing into rest.

She woke to find Ganondorf staring at her. She smiled, feeling almost drunk.

"Hello Mr. Piggy. Fancy seeing you here, is Miss Piggy home?"

He grunted and pushed her up to a sitting position, not sure how to reply to that.

Zelda just giggled, the lack of oxygen still affecting her "Wee! The world is going all tilty!"

Ganondorf decided that a sneer best suited this situation "Don't expect any thanks. I don't do all that 'I'm forever in you're debt' nonsense."

"Heehee! Of course you don't! That would be _polite_. You're a total jerk and lunatic. I think I want to be called princess pretty now! " her eyes suddenly snapped into focus "by the goddesses! Did I seriously just say that?"

Ganondorf would have liked to sigh in relief that she was normal again, but he restrained himself "Yes you did. Now if you're _quite_ sane, then I suggest we figure out what to _do_."

Zelda looked around. They were in a small cavern, probably a pocket of air in the tunnels. They had no weapons, apparently her bow and sword had been washed away, and she had been required to unhook Ganondorf's sword with all his armor. The cavern looked unstable, so using magic might result in a cave-in. Zelda rubbed her forehead, normally, the triforce would have been nice to have.

Ganondorf rolled his eyes "Wonderful, _you_ can't think of something. We're dead."

Zelda scowled "Give me some time; I need to examine this place."

Ganondorf stood up, not responding, and began to pace the cave. Zelda stood up as well and went to the wall of the cave, running her fingers over it in hope that some inspiration would leap out and hit her. How thick were the walls? What was on the other side of them? How-

"For the love of Fyore Ganondorf will you stop pacing?!"

Ganondorf stopped in his tracks, staring at Zelda with mock surprise "Princess Zelda having an outburst? What next! Fireproof zora? Or perhaps the twili will start having noon picnics in hyrule field! Or maybe-"

"SHUT UP!"

Ganondorf just laughed "You know, the triforce usually keeps your emotions under control for you. If your going to pretend you still have it you should at least _try_ to do more than cover your hand."

Zelda froze "How-"

"-do I know about that? You didn't offer to heal my wounds after I fought the bird, you've been acting muddled for a long time, your not as dignified as usual, your spells are weaker, you had no help keeping you alive after half drowning, and" he pointed to her right hand "The disguise bandages came off."

Zelda looked at her hand, where the mark-less skin was indeed showing.

"Then… why am I not dead?"

Ganondorf his face away "I don't know. I _do_ know that whatever is stopping me is the same thing that stopped me from running you over as Ganon at the village. Now lets go back to looking for some way out of here."

Zelda nodded, but didn't move "Ganondorf?"

"What?"

"Since I did save your life…"

"I already told you, I'm not going to be all grateful."

"I just wanted to ask a question, if you answer it, we call it square. If you don't we call it square anyway."

Ganondorf turned back around to face her "What is it?"

"Why _did_ you deceive and betray hyrule?"

Ganondorf was sighlent, finally Zelda turned away, realizing that he wasn't going to answer.

"When I was five years old, I became apprentice to a knight of hyrule."

Zelda turned around in surprise, but Ganondorf kept talking, if he stopped, he wouldn't have the courage to start again.

"The thought was that if the Gerudo and Hylians got use to each other, maybe we could live in peace. The other apprentices hated me. Out of all of them, I somehow found one friend. His name was Chariton. He ended up taking the gerudo initiation right next to me. Then we were the same, I was of gerudo blood but also had hylian title, and he was of hylian blood but also had gerudo title."

"Then he betrayed me. Tried to kill me alongside another knight. I didn't realizes who they were until after I defeated them, and then I had only survived by killing his accomplice. In accordance with the so called 'justice' of the hylians I was sentenced as a murderer and he went free, seen as the victim of the whole thing who had lost his fellow apprentice to gerudo scum."

Ganondorf took a deep breath "The knight that was training me came to my defence, saved me at the last moment by threatening to leave the knight ranks. So I was exiled instead. A few weeks later, Chariton's dagger was sent to me with my master's lifeblood encrusting the blade. They accused me of killing _him_ too."

Ganondorf turned away again, pretending to examine the wall for an escape. Zelda was in shock, and her shock grew as she saw that the ground beneath Ganondorf's feet growing speckled with tears. Ganondorf, crying?

She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. She opened her mouth, but couldn't think of what to say, so she closed it again.

Ganondorf suddenly smiled, and not a hint of demonic nature lingered in his face "I never told anyone the full story, not even my sister. Never realized how much I needed to let someone know."

Though neither of them realized it, Ganondorf's face had lost all of the sickly tint that had plagued it for so long.


	34. Chapter 34

Link burst from the surface of the water. Itzal and Midna, both hovering _above_ the water, spun around to face him, but he shook his head.

Midna groaned "You would think that we would at least be able to find a _trace_ of them. I mean seriously! Water doesn't wash _everything_ away and-"

Itzal interrupted "well we did find atrace, trace-_es _in fact!" He indicated a pile of objects on his black disk "Ganondorf's armor, Zelda's bow, both their swords…"

Midna glared at him "Shut up, I'm in the middle of ranting here."

"Mr. Cov- I mean Mr. Itzal? Is that you?"

They turned their heads upward, towards the large hole in the ceiling. Egon was peering over the edge.

Itzal's eyes widened "Egon?! Oh , the village found us."

Midna smacked Itzal "The kid is ten years old, don't curse in front of him!"

Itzal gaped in protest "I think the word is called for in these circumstances! And anyway, the kid won't remember!"

Egon mentally stored away for later use "Actually I'm alone."

Midna turned back to Egon "Alone?! How did you even find us?"

Egon glance over his shoulder "Well not _entirely_ alone, this black horse came to the camp and led me here. He's kinda creepy actually, he had red eyes."

There was a whinny of protest from behind at the confusion of gender, and Link spoke up "Ganondorf's horse"

They all glanced at him and Midna raised an eyebrow "What is he (another whinny of protest) doing here?"

Link shrugged and Egon spoke up again "I think he wants to lead us somewhere."

Lilith was considering leaving them to rot by the time the had climbed up, after they had called her a he about twenty million times and Link didn't even _attempt _to correct them.

It had been a long time since Zelda and Ganondorf had landed in the air pocket. A _very_ long time, all of which they had spent searching for some secret passage out of said air pocket.

Ganondorf threw up his hands in exasperation "Well we've tried you're method for a while now, but apparently we can't _think_ ourselves out of think one. So I say we try my specialty."

Before Zelda could even begin protesting, Ganondorf aimed the back of his right hand at the wall and blasted it as hard as he could. The result was a colossal hole in the stone.

Ganondorf grin, a hint of gloating embedded in it "Hey what do you know, it worked!"

Zelda couldn't help but laugh, half out of relief that the entire place didn't collapse. They ducked into the hole, or rather through it since the wall turned out to be only about two feet thick, to the passage behind it. Zelda glanced at the newly blasted cave on the other wall, one as long as the palace courtyard.

"Ganondorf, have you ever heard of the term 'overkill'?"

Ganondorf shook his head "No such thing, you either get rid of an obstacle or you don't."

Suddenly there was a rumble above them and both the smiles dropped off their faces. The rumble sounded again, louder this time. The two hyrulians got ready to run, thinking that it was another torrent of water. The ceiling burst like an over grown zit, and they both flinched, waiting for the water. But instead of water, behind the stone was a door.

It round, very big, and made of metal. The front was engraved with hyrulian writing. It only said one word: Muerte. Apparently they had found the boss room.

Neither of them moved for a moment, and then Ganondorf reached up to try and move it. No sooner had he touched the stone then it crumbled to dust, cascading him with a shower of gray sand. Ganondorf wiped the sand out of his eyes, he grinned, despite the sting, at the sand because it was familiar. They had neither the complete triforce with them, nor the gun. It would have been better to come back later.

But though neither of the two had ever completed a dungeon before, so neither of them knew: when you open a boss's door, you always go through it. It is not the wisest decision, for it isn't a decision at all. In Link's adventures, though he didn't quite realize it, he had never opened a boss door and not gone in. It is simply impossible.

Without even thinking it odd, they both leapt into the tunnel and began to climb up. Towards Muerte. Totally unprepared.

sorry its so short, I have writers block right now


	35. Chapter 35

Okay so it turned out to be a _short_ writers block

* * *

The tunnel was dark, but unlike the previous areas of cave, it was smooth and dry. Wherever they were, it wasn't a natural cave. Ganondorf looked around the cave, though his eyes reported nothing back to him.

"This isn't exactly very useful."

In response, Zelda conjured up a blue light in her right hand. Ganondorf glanced at her, surprised though he tried not to show it.

Zelda smiled "I _do_ have magic that doesn't require the triforce Ganondorf."

He snorted "I knew that. I just wondered why you chose blue, pink suits someone as girly as you much better!"

Zelda scowled and purposely made sure the light was as blue as possible. Suddenly her foot hit a small bump in the floor and she went tumbling to the ground. The light went out and Ganondorf tripped over her foot, sent sprawling as well.

He cursed "What happened?!"

"I tripped."

"Over _what?!_ The ground is completely smooth!"

Zelda took a deep breath and counted to ten, it was amazing how hard it was to control her emotions without the triforce. She brought up the light again and stood up, examining the object she had tripped over.

"It looks like a bundle of spikes!"

Ganondorf joined her in examination "No the spikes are attached to something, kinda like fur."

"You're right, it looks like their attached to a tail, or maybe tentacle."

Both their eyes widened in realization as the cave they were in began to brighten, a certain creature beginning to glow with a pretty white light.

For some reason, the most dangerous things in the caves had a tendency to be quite beautiful. The creature's millions of tiny eyeballs each gave off a white light, the fangs in its moths were pearly, the lips surrounding them like white velvet, the tentacles swayed like feathers in the wind, and the quills covering the creature's tentacles were glass-like, shining in the light. It looked nothing so much as a diamond-encrused chandelier.

But the eyes could see any weakness, the fangs penetrate any armor, the tentacles ensnare any prey, and the quills contained pure poison. It was without a doubt: death. It was without a doubt: Muerte.

A hundred eyelids snapped shut, and the cavern was once again plunged into darkness. There was a whoosh of air and a mass of quills slammed into the ground where Ganondorf and Zelda had been two seconds earlier. The allies had leapt to the left and right, now ignorant of where the other was.

Muerte moved again, and this time Ganondorf heard Zelda scream. One of Muerte's eyes opened, illuminating the cavern like a flash of lightning, just long enough for Ganondorf to spot Zelda across the cavern. She wasn't captured, and he didn't _see_ any blood. It was possible she had only been hit by a flying stone perhaps? He sighed, that meant she wasn't poisoned. Ganondorf heard a woosh through the air and he swung his sword out, blocking one tentacle while the others crashed harmlessly around him. Ganondorf rolled out from under the one his sword held at bay and jumped over another that hissed through the air near his feet.

Ganondorf shouted across the room "What do we do?!"

Zelda opened her mouth to shout out a plan, only to find that she didn't have one ready "I-I don't know."

"What?! You always have a plan! You're the guardian of wisdom!"

Zelda shook her head in despair "I don't _have _the triforce Ganondorf! I don't think I can do anything without it!"

Ganondorf shook his head "Don't be foolish, it wouldn't have chosen you if that were true."

They both dodged another quill bundle and Zelda bit her lip "Well it can't hear us, its just attacking blindly unless it opens one of its eyes. And its eyes must be its weak point… but I-I think that's what the gun is for. Even if we had a bow, we couldn't shoot fast enough."

Ganondorf dodged another tentacle "Well we don't _have_ the gun! So think of something else!"

Zelda shook her head "I-I don't think there is anything else! Maybe if we stall…"

"Stall?! You're letting the fear get to you Zelda, if you were thinking strait then you'd know that you won't be able to hold out that long."

Zelda realized with a jolt that he was right, she was already tiring, but _Ganondorf_ might be able to hold out. She didn't have the triforce anymore, so Ganondorf was the only one that needed to survive.

So she lied "I'll be fine, I-I have a spell to replenish my energy."

Ganondorf snarled, about to reply. Zelda was really bad at lying, anyone could tell if she was telling the truth or not the second she spoke. Suddenly he closed his mouth, why _did_ he care? Why _should_ it concern him?

Chamber of the Sages

"You're brother is in trouble."

_**"He stopped being my brother a long time ago Saria."**_

"Grown-ups are so silly sometimes! Why are you all so determined to think that he's bad?"

_**"It took me a long time to realize it, but my brother is gone for good."**_

"But he's _not!_ If you would just…"

_**"Don't Saria. Don't. He's gone."**_

"Why are you so sure?"

_**"Because I watched him leave. And I didn't stop him in time."**_

"Give him one more chance."

_**"He's gone."**_

"That's what Mido told me when Link died. But you know what? They're never really gone, just waiting for when someone needs them. After all, how do you think the new Link learned all the hidden skills?"

Silence.

_**"One more try."**_

* * *

There was a presence next to Ganondorf, one that was familiar.

_"Do you want to save her Ganondorf?"_

Ganondorf frowned "There's no reason for me too."

_"But do you _want _to?"_

Ganondorf paused, then

"Yes. It doesn't make sense but I do."

"_Tell her."_

"You've got to be kidding-"

"_Tell her."_

Ganondorf gritted his teeth against his pride "Zelda, you better come up with a new plan, because there's no way in all of Hyrule, no, in the entire universe, no way I'm going to let you die."

A few feet below, Ganondorf's sword burst into light In Link's hand.

There was something Ganondorf had never found out about his sword: the sword was usually wielded by golems, but when wielded by a living being, it could take emotions and turn them into power. And Ganondorf had just stopped denying the most powerful feeling of the heart, allowing it to flow to the sword:

Ganondorf had just admitted to himself that he loved Zelda.

Back in the chamber of sages, Saria grinned "I told you that he had another reason not to betray them."

The floor burst open like an orange under an anvil, but neither Ganondorf nor Zelda dropped even an inch. Muerte slammed its quills into the side if the cave to stop itself from falling.

And when the floor stopped falling away, there were five heroes staring up at them: Egon, Itzal, Lilith, Midna, and Link. Muerte opened all of its eyes to see what was happening. Seven bullets sped up from the depths of the cavern, as they sped though the air, and all of them found their mark.

Muerte tumbled from the cavern ceiling, plunging to the stone far below. Lilith sped out of the way, Egon on her back. Midna and Itzal snatched Link up and hauled him into the air. Muerte slammed into the stone floor below, dead.

Egon stared at the dead beast, and only one word seemed to sum up his feeling "holy "

Midna smacked Cover "I told you he'd remember that word."


	36. Epilogue

_**Epilogue **_

Zelda stared at the grave in front of her. On it were only two words: Ganondorf Dragmire. She sighed and turned to the crowd of hyrulians behind her.

"There isn't much I can say. He is the only reason we were able to defeat Muerte, and he used up his life force doing it. He may have done some horrible things in his life, but there was more to him that anyone knew."

The hyrulians all bowed their heads in tribute as Zelda walked away from the grave. She walked to the gates of Hyrule City, telling her guards that she needed some fresh air. At the gate was a cloaked figure, waiting for her.

Under the hood of the cloak, Ganondorf grinned "That was the most touching fake funeral I've ever seen."

Zelda smiled despite herself "Well it had to be convincing, I mean I hardly think anyone would be okay with Ganondorf visiting me regularly."

Ganondorf smirked "Afraid of ruining your reputation?"

Zelda laughed "Well the new sage of light does have standards."

Ganondorf snorted "Sure, and I'm sure Midna is going to keep up the standards for the sage of time as well. I'm just glad you got the triforce back, you were starting to develop a sense of humor. It was scaring me."

* * *

Egon threw a sheikah dagger at the target in front of him, managing to hit it this time. His family had agreed to move to Hyrule (after Zelda had invited them to live at the castle for Egon's brave contributions to saving the world) and Egon was receiving lessons from a top rate sheikah named Itzal.

* * *

Midna glared at a certain wolf who was giving her puppy eyes from across her castle throne room, it was a staring contest for who would give out first.

Suddenly one of Midna's advisors came into the room "So good to see you back your majesty! We've been preparing a feast in your hon- why is there a dog in the room?"

Midna couldn't keep a strait face any longer, she burst out laughing "He followed me home, and against my better judgment: I think I'm going to keep him."

She looked stern again "But only as a pet all right puppy dog?"

Link gave a puppy's grin, it was a start.

* * *

Zelda frowned, perplexed "There's only one thing I can't figure out: why did you pick that name? Chariton hardly seems to fit you."

Ganondorf smiled, not a trace of mischief in his face "Let's just say it's my way of letting go of a long, stale grudge."


End file.
